The New World
by General-Snave-Wehttam
Summary: Kind of HiE fic, Human Answers Unknown Calling, The first few chapters do not reflect the story as a hole.  Please read at least till about chapter 5 to get an idea about it.  Thanks! R&R Please!
1. Chapter 1

The New World

Gen. Snave W.

MLP;FiM

Enjoy!

Dedicated to: Anyone with an open Mind.

Prelude:

Beginning, In a Nutshell.

Life. A wondrous, fragile, thing. After we are born, we are sent into a world full of uncertainties, regrets, hopes, dreams, and goals. We are given examples at how to live, and most follow the best they find for themselves. Some are lost and try to copy others' goals. We each carve our own place into our world. "Our" world. Not everyone's, but OUR. We each live in our own. We each make our own from that fine, invisible substance, that binds us all together, and holds us apart. My story began as most. I was born, on Earth, a human. I grew up, too quickly( as don't we all?), and almost didn't find my goal. My purpose. I was of greater than average intelligence. Stocky and stoutish, but not short, in build. I was of that group that almost lost to the world( a great loss for this world) before I had a "purpose". In school, my teachers often acknowledged that I could go "far". That was the problem. Where should I go "far" to? I was too well abled. I had so many possible fields. After a slight nervous breakdown, out of my fragile human mind, a thought came. It was: "Come! You are meant to be Here. You must go to the New World! That is where your destiny lies!"

This was my calling. My purpose, I didn't realize what it all meant, but, into my mind exploded calculations, theories, and mathematical possibilities. They all were oriented to breaking through the dimensional walls around our own. They all had one place in common. I did not know it, but I was heading on a path that would be dangerous, and possibly, more than deadly. However, at that time, my mind only dwelled on the fact that I had a Calling, a purpose. A reason. And my journey began.

Chapter One

Meeting Strangers

I had now for four years after graduating early from courses only I could grasp, dwelled deeply into the science of Transdimensional Travel. I was a pioneer of the science. I was the science. Those thoughts from years ago had been burned into my consciousness, they drove me forward. I had amassed a team of fifty people, most were just to look like they were needed, to research and develop, the science. We had had major success. I had successfully moved an object from our dimension, to another, and back again. I had one secret. The actual destination I was working for. If I was given thoughts by a conscious being, I did't want the rest of humanity to screw up a chance at meeting them. What is always our first TRUE reaction to something new? We kill it. Then study how to kill it more efficiently. Then think about working with it. We do things pretty, "ass-backwards". There are reasons for that, and I understood them, but we never realize that something new, might be more dangerous that that reaction can cover. If we nip at the tail of a lion. What stops that lion from nipping us back. Most likely not in our tail either.

Anyway, we had had our most successful month yet. A TRUE transport. I knew I could make it now. But, to learn about it first. I had unlimited access to the entire lab complex, and my own personal lab. I had the rest of the "team" pack up for a week vacation. I needed solitude. I had to make sure I was doing the Right thing. To bring something here, from another world, without moving something living first. It was not risky at all, according the the theories, and mathematics of the science. However, as far as I am concerned, there is always a one-in-a-million chance that ANYTHING could happen.

I had Just finished calibrating the machines in my lab to do a simple transport. From 'The World". I decided that I would trust the theorems, and equations, and allow for a being to cross the gap. I was NOT prepared.

I was expecting almost anything. EXCEPT, for six things. On a side note: They were equines. One's with some oddities. They appeared to be; two pegasi, two unicorns, and two normal ponies. WELL, "normal" would be a stretch. They were of an assortment of colors. One pegasus was yellow, with a pink mane and tail. The other cyan, with a rainbow mane and tail. One unicorn was purple, with a pink streaked, purple mane and tail. The other white, with a purple, styled, mane and tail. The "normal ponies" were even different. One pink. The other orange, with a blonde mane and tail.

(Now, you are all thinking, THIS is were some random important "brony" gets sucked into Equestria somehow. No. In fact, this isn't a brony at all. He has no clue what these things are, other than the normal Earth names. For you see, MLP; FiM, and other generations of the show, DON'T exist in his dimension. THE HORROR)

That was the beginning of the shocks for me. They all were asleep, as the interdimensional walls are not a thing you see break and remain sane. As they woke, they, of course, looked confused. Almost as much as I. The real surprise came next, well, both of them. First; they spoke. This almost made my head explode. As far as I knew, equines didn't have vocal cords like that. Second; they had "magic".

The purple one woke, and looked the least confused. She also saw me first, and was the one who spoke.

"Stay back." She said, "Girls, we are in a dangerous place." and then the magic. Her unicorn horn glowed with a purple aura, and slammed me into the ceiling. I thought of a few things while my awareness drifted away. One, "Amazing, talking magical PONIES. And I brought them here." Two, " I think I was just smashed against a very expensive sensor." And unconsciousness engulfed my mind.

Chapter Two

Setting Things Straight

As I woke, I found myself held in place by something I didn't cary a supply of in the labs. Rope. Strong Sturdy, rope. As I was soon told, the rope was supplied by the orange pony. I was also informed by my "guard", that I was going to be questioned soon. And the time came.

The purple unicorn walked back into the room and asked first, "Where are we?"

Seeing no reason not to answer some questions that deserved answers, I said, "You are in another dimension, On a planet called Earth. Welcome."

She looked slightly relieved, and then asked, "What were you planning to do with us? And Why did you bring us here?"

I replied, "I was simply doing my "job", so to speak, I was contacted a few years ago, by something. I was given the knowledge on how to open the path between my world and yours, and have been working towards the actual doing so, ever since. As for what I was going to do with you, I was only going to find out things about your world, as the purpose of the whole message was for me to go There. I didn't want to do it ignorant of what I would find. I apologize for "kidnapping" the six of you."

After hearing my monologue, She and her friends gathered and whispered amongst themselves. A short period of argument, followed by a time of sincere agreement. I was either doomed, or saved. We can guess which I hoped for.

They separated, and the purple unicorn stood in front of me. The others went to work on the bond I was held in. As they come loose, the unicorn said, "I apologize myself, for attacking you. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity." Each stepped forward to be recognized, except for Fluttershy, who was apparently, shy.

I quickly said, standing, "Its perfectly fine. You had basically every right to do it. You were pulled from whatever you were doing, and thrown into a world you don't understand. I had basically abducted you. Now though, lets do what I had intended."

Then followed a period of around an hour, me asking questions, and taking notes. They, answering, and asking some questions of their own. Eventually, we had reached the point we knew all we needed.

"Well," I said, "lets get you all home. You are probably very missed. And I don't want to upset people, or ponies, with power like you describe."

"Too late" , Said a new voice. The voice had a kind of calm, coldness to it. It sent shivers down my spine. As I spun to see who this newcomer was, I happened to catch the sight of a tall, alicorn, and then I saw everything. And then, nothing.

The human fell to the floor in front of me. He had actually been kind, but we were offered no chance to explain before Celestia knocked him out somehow. There was a brief flash, and then he dropped. I had never seen my teacher act so ruthlessly. She had just taken the human down for no reason. He had just said that he would send us back. Then she explained.

She began, "That was necessary. He was a human. They are mostly a vile and untrustworthy, race. He was not "harmed", he only had certain memories removed. They could destroy our world without meaning to. They will probably destroy their own the same way. Now. We will go.

My thoughts raced. Celestia had been acting for the apparent safety of all of our world. Not just Equestria. This could be potentially more dangerous than I had thought. I would do some research back home.

"Ow" was all that I could manage after about three hours of unconsciousness. That was weird. Why was I unconscious. And why did my head HURT so much! I staggered to the cabinet in the corner of the lab, and took our a small container of aspirin. Before I could even use it. Things came rushing back. That memory removal spell hadn't worked the way that "Celestia" had planned. She had accidentally given me more. And that hurt a bit. I knew what I needed though. And began to prepare. I was leaving soon. Probably alone, I needed to be ready. And rather fast.

Within a month, I had increased my abilities tremendously. I had studied a variety of different martial arts as a pass time when I was in college. And had never been far our of shape. I did add one more thing to my arsenal. I studied the locations of certain nerves in equines. Nerves that when pressure was applied to in excess force, caused unconsciousness. I had gotten to the point where I could spin a charging animal, three times my size, in a half circle, sending them away. I could stick a landing from twenty feet. I could even take a considerable amount of punishment, partly due to training, mostly due to natural hardiness. I was ready. I had asked a discrete few, to see if any would be willing to follow. None. So, I set everything up, and "disappeared". I had left considerable portions of my lifetime earnings to my family and friends, the rest to different foundations. I had destroyed all reference to the space I was going to. And began a journey that would last a lifetime, literally.

I activated the transporter, and set the computer to reformat everything in my lab as soon as I was on the other side of the breach. As soon as I was "gone" for good. I had packed some necessities, and some personal items that held sentimental value. And I was gone.

Chapter Three

Equestria

I had miscalculated. I was falling. I had no way to go back. I hit the ground asleep, and woke in a cell. While unconscious, I had been discovered by a patrol of guards. They had taken me, beaten and broken by the ground, to their base. I was medic'ed up, and shipped to the capitol city, Canterlot, unconscious. I was to face a "trial" of sorts soon. I would be sent to the private court chambers, and judged by the princesses themselves. I thought of and prepared for the worst. I had lost all of my supplies. I had no backup, not that I ever had, and no plan. I was at the whim of fate. Should it go well, I would be sentenced to labor somewhere. Should it go bad, I would be dead, or turned to stone, I heard something about stone. I sat, waiting. It was the most boring thing I had had to experience for years. I had always been busy, now I was forced to wait. I had hours to contemplate the best and worst-case scenarios. And then the trial actually came.

I first learned that execution was our of the question. As they could always use more help somewhere, and didn't believe in killing as punishment(very often). I had, however, little chance of getting anywhere but the palace, as the Sun Princes Celestia, wanted to keep an eye on me. The debate began as to what I was to do, and how long they would wait until I was deemed trustworthy, and allowed freedom. The trial began.

"This _human_, has invaded our land of Equestria. He could, possibly, easily upset the careful harmony we have strived to achieve. If we don't keep him in a well observed area, he may try to escape, and possibly help our enemies." Celestia continued, "I propose that he stays here, at the palace, where the guard can watch him and ensure that he does no wrong."

There were murmurs of agreement, but one stepped forward. A younger, shy, alicorn. She stated herself as "Luna" Princess of the Night. She countered her sisters harsh confinement.

"I believe, he should be given a chance to prove himself. He has done no wrong. He has even stated that he came here simply to help. If anything, he should at least be given a chance to see what our world is like. As he, like us, is sentient, and deserves the same basic rights that we all have. I think that someone else should take the responsibility. That he may not be cooped up in some palace, never to prove anything, other than the ability to take up space." She added, "Also, I believe from what Twilight, and her friends, had said, that he only borrowed them to find out if it would be safe for him to answer the "calling" he describes."

"Yes, "I said, out of turn, "I wish no harm, only to be of what help I can, and to fulfill whatever destiny has planned."

The speaking out of turn got me a kick from one of the guards next to me, and knocked the wind from my body.

"Stop", Celestia ordered before the guard could do anymore, "My sister has a valid point. And, he was right to defend himself, even if out of turn. I will allow one of the attendees, to take him with them. This will give him time, and a place, where he may prove himself different form his kin. I would suggest that you, Twilight, take him with you. He could be of use in your varied lifestyle. Maybe he could sort books.

"Well, If you think I would be up for the task Princes." Twilight answered, "I would be glad to help you, and to have a chance to study the behavior of him. If most humans act as you and all of our records state, then this is a unique opportunity. I could possibly prove a few things wrong, or right. I would be honored to help"

Seeing this exchange going well, I was relieved. I was also worried. I was only temporarily safe. If they distrusted me this much, enough to consider keeping me locked away for my entire life, than they knew a thing or two about what a world is like WITHOUT humans. And that was bad for me, I would have the prejudice of ages, and propaganda of history, against me. Likely, if they knew about humans, they had us at one point, and got rid of us at another. Wise move, I decided in my mind. We can be pretty rotten most of the time. I knew that I had to strive to show them that I was not a "normal" human. That I had morals, and ideals that most of us don't. (Or at least, ignore most of the time) I was going to have a difficult time in this world. However, I have no problem with a challenge.

Chapter Four

By Dragons Fire

I had survived the trial. And within a few weeks was allowed to be collected by Twilight, and moved to Ponyville. Celestia visited me the day before. She gave me a task, and ordered that I stick to it. I was informed of the dire consequences if i failed, and accepted yet another challenge. At the library in Ponyville, I was given some menial tasks at first. Such as to alphabetize the books in the library, and every other day, to answer some questions about humanity. This went well. I was able to witness some interesting things in their world too. Like, how peaceful they usually were. They had all sorts of different places in the small area I could see form my glances out the windows of the library. I watched, and learned. I learned that they had almost limitless harmony. They all had different jobs, and responsibilities, but were always laid back, and enjoying their lives. They always tried their best to help others in need too. We could all learn from this.

Things started to get interesting a few weeks after my internment began. A traveling "show" came to Ponyville, and the town was wound up at the new event. They had all gathered in the square and were witnessing tricks performed by a certain show mare. I heard a few things. Mostly from Twilight, and Spike(Who was Twilights assistant, and a dragon.) who were arguing about weather Twilight should end the boastings of the show mare, and the humiliations of her friends. From what I heard, Spike was right. Twilight was just overly concerned with the fact that she could easily beat this "Trixie" and was afraid that her friends would see her as boasting her power as well. I was astounded at how she was unable to see that she would be standing up for her friends, and not boasting. But it was not my place to correct, or offer input. I had jobs to do, and books to sort.

In the end, all things worked out. As each gave up arguing, Spike accidentally got two of the "slower" sounding ponies, to fetch an "Ursa Major" to prove their new heroine was all that she said. In the end the beast stamped through the town, and flattened Trixie's wagon. Twilight was forced to sedate, and replace the Ursa, back in its natural habitat. Her friends told her how proud they were, and everyone was happy, except for Trixie, who ran of to who-knows-where.

It was the following week that brought bad news. And the first chance to truly prove myself. Twilight received a letter from Celestia late one night that stated a dragon had taken up roost nearby. A fully grown, dangerous dragon. He was presently spreading smoke across all of their country. Weather intentional or not, this had to be stopped. And Twilight and her Friends had to see to it. I began to gather supplies. Such as a thick woolen blanket, rope, and a lot of courage.

The next morning, Fluttershy herself was the first to notice the smoke. She quickly tried to warn everyone, but she is generally not one to be good at that kind of job. It was Twilight that got everyone to notice by announcing that She and her Friends would take care of the problem. As they each gathered individual supplies, I was given more than I had gotten already. Spike was away, and I was to carry what I could. This suited me. And the trek began to the cave at the top of a nearby mountain. We eventually reached the destination, with many problems concerning a certain shy pegasus, dealt with. Then the dragon was to be faced.

We learned that Fluttershy was deathly scared of the beast, and would not be able to face it. As the other five tried their stuff, I was busy climbing the rough face of the cliff around the cave. I wanted to be up where its head would be so as to get any form of a surprise attack if it came into the open. This happened rather quickly. As Rainbow Dash, brash as ever, kicked the beast in the snout, It roared out smoke and came to deal with its nap's ruiners as quickly as possible. I realized I had one option. I could take one hit. Then I'd be out for the count. I tied the blanket to my arms and had it drape past my legs. I overlapped my head and neck with the top. I then secured a rope to the cliff, and around my own waist. I was going to have one chance to save someone, and I would do my best. The beast blew the five who had been able to brave it into a nearby rock which, for unknown reasons, shattered. This revealed a startled Fluttershy. She began to get rather uncharacteristically angry. She began yelling at the dragon and, while startled momentarily, the dragon soon recovered and responded by firing up its burners on low. I jumped. I "landed" in the air between the two just as the flames erupted. I did my best to play shield. And as the flames burned through the wool, and seared my back, I was on the edge of consciousness. I had, apparently, startled the great lizard, and it cut off short of frying me completely. I hung helpless for a moment, and then the rope finished burning through, and I dropped to the ground twenty feet below. Had I not landed just right, I would have broken both of my legs. As it was, I was able to crawl out of the way of the reptile, and the pegasus. Who had by then implemented the infamous, "Stare". This was the only thing that saved the rest of us. The dragon, finding itself not immune, was forced into submission, and driven form the land. I was found, and carefully taken to the hospital.

The doctors, while not knowing everything about humans (actually almost nothing), were able to cast my leg. As for my back, they had to call in a unicorn, who would be able to patch the tissue with no scaring, and repair any muscular damage done beneath. I was confined to the hospital for one week with bandages across my back while the unicorn was retrieved, and then for another month, until my leg had been deemed capable of supporting weight. I was allowed to go back to the library for the rest of the recovery. And my normal daily life continued. Hobble, check that the shelves are arranged properly, hobble, arrange anything out of order, do exercises, answer questions from Twilight to explain my actions that day. My answer was always the same, I am different form my kin. I have obligations. I owe debts. And I always, always, help the best way I can. Weather opening the door, or taking a shot from a dragon. I would be there to defend. It was my duty. It was my life, or death, task. I would have performed the same way, obligated, or out of free choice. And I was on the road to recovery.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Recovery, and Pink Radicals

As my leg healed, I gradually spent more and more time being known by the local populace. As I was allowed to stroll outside to get the necessary exercise in for my leg to heal properly. I would go out early to move around in the early morning, dew on the grass, night still in the sky. I enjoyed this time as hectic as things had been recently. I had started with a "quick stroll" around the libraries circlet. As my leg healed to the point where the cast was removed, I began to stroll farther distances. Often leaving for up to an hour. I got to see quite a bit of the town during this time, and began to understand the layout of the place. I learned important locations relative to others. I as soon as I could walk for about an hour with no fatigue in my leg, I began to jog. I would jog to the Town Hall and back. As I slowly became accustom to that, I would go farther, and farther. Soon, I had to go all the way around the town. This was good, I had gotten a little better than I had been when I first arrived. I did't necessarily have to keep jogging in the mornings, but with free time, I had to do something. And as Twilight had gotten permission to allow me to be more publicly seen, I was to appear at a "quick" town meeting. It was not quick in the slightest, as Twilight was about the only one who new anything about me, and humans, she was given the opportunity to give a speech. Even I was getting sleepy at the end( And I had been a scientist in our would! Think you've sat through some repetitious stuff at work, or school? Try one of Twilights speeches.). After about twenty minutes on basic information, such as my strength, general temperament, my dimensions, and such, She got into history about my kind. Going as far back as before Modern Equestria. The mayor, having dosed of about five times by now (She may have a few more times, I had spaced out a couple myself), decided it was time for Twilight to stop and actually introduce me. So she invited me to stand next to the podium, though I had to bend over, and almost kneel, I was able to give my name (Randis, since I hadn't been Introduced yet in conversation) and say how glad I was that I was being so welcomed by everypony. I was quickly done, and we all left. There were a few ponies interested in the fact that a 'human' was among them, but not too many. So we had a little discussion outside the Town Hall with a few ponies. To name them, it was: Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie(Who was insisting that this called for a party), Rarity, Fluttershy(though she was actually just looking sheepishly at the ground), Carrot Top(Who was interested in knowing that I would stay out of her garden), Derpy Hooves(Who thought I would need to be recorded for an address), The Mayor Pony(I never got her name, she made sure that I would not cause more trouble than she already had to deal with, looking pointedly at Derpy), and a certain group of 'crusaders'( They thought I could somehow be a way to get a cutie mark, and I was advised by Twilight and Applejack to watch out for a few weeks). As for after the meetings, back at the library, Twilight began to teach me some stuff about their society. Much to her dismay, I already knew most of what she had planned to say. She neglected the fact that I _had_ been working in the **Library** for several months now. With any amount of free time, I would select a book from a subject of interest. This had taught me a good deal about them all. I still got a lecture about early pony lore. It was informative to say the least. I learned who made potting spells, and even more about Starswirl the Bearded than I ever had considered wanting to know! I had had a quite long, informative, and tiring day. As had, thankfully, Twilight. So she cut short the lecture on who one of the most important unicorn magicians of all time was, and went on her way to sleep. I quickly followed suit.

The next day, I got up a little earlier than usual, and decided to visit each place in town I was likely to be sent to on an errand. This would save everypony a lot of trouble when it came to asking me to go get quills or parchment. They had so many peculiar stores in this town, one that stuck out the most was Quills and Sofas. WHY would you sell ONLY quills and sofas? Apparently they made a decent living doing so, but why QUILLS AND SOFAS? They don't even go together in the slightest, unless you decided you wanted to write on your sofa, but that was heading into the realm of Pinkie's thoughts, something I backed away from quickly. I decided to drop the peculiarity of most things and go with the flow.

As I was heading back I realized in walking to each destination, I had spent considerably more time out than usual. In fact, I was actually seeing several ponies out an about. I watched the weather patrols clear out clouds that had been accidentally shoved beforehand, and gardeners tending to their pastimes, I even saw Applejack tending to her apple stand. Another thing I had noticed, the Apples. They all were named for what they did. Applejack, Big Macintosh, Applebloom, Granny Smith, all were types of apples, or apple related. Nothing wrong with it, just interesting. As I headed back to the library, I saw Pinkie Pie being her usual, high strung, hyper active self. She was bouncing along quite happily, and had spaced almost everything from her mind, If she ever didn't, but when she saw me she seemed to remember something, and dashed off. I, not knowing what just happened, continued on my way. Later I would be in for a surprise. Upon entering the library, I saw Twilight looking slightly confused, I was usually back early enough to open curtains and do some simple chores, but taking a stroll quite longer than expected, hadn't had a chance to. After explaining such things, and taking up a few extra tasks to make up for it, The day was back on track.

At about five in the afternoon. Thats when we were all called to the Sugar Cube Corner, for a Pinkie related matter. The others all had a good idea of what was going on, I had not experienced such things yet, and was a novice in matters that dealt with Pinkie. We got inside and headed for her room, which as soon as we entered, was brightly lit with streamers, and balloons, and tables full of sweets, and drinks, and oh, so much was there to be seen! I had lost count of how many different ways she had arranged different decorations! And of course, Pinkie managed to make it a surprise party, by jumping from some point in space which managed to completely hide her, to RIGHT next to me. When I say right next to me I mean, If she had been closer we would have fused into some super Human Pinkie Pie crossover of some sort! Of corse, this made me jump off the floor far enough that a rocket jumping maniac would be hard pressed to beat me! This brought a good laugh to everyone present, and nearly gave me cardiac arrest. I had to give it to her, she threw a party! We arrived about five as I said, but the whole thing lasted until about nine, and that was with six ponies, and one human! I almost couldn't comprehend the possibility of there being more, it would last forever!

When we all parted ways, the pink mare made sure to include my birthday to her (more than substantial) list. I was again amazed at how she could do all of this without any form of time manipulation, then again, the way she acted it would not surprise me much if she did manipulate time. On the way back to the library, we, Twilight and I, got into a discussion on the topic of that particular pony. Pinkie, was as far as Twilight could tell, nearly always with a schedule fuller than that of her own, and at the same time, the radical element of laughter, was always wandering aimlessly somewhere at any given moment. After each giving input that involved theorems, and mathematics so complex, onlookers gave up listening entirely, we reached a conclusion. Pinkie Pie was to be deemed a free radical in the universe. Twilight was intent on discovering where her peculiar abilities lie, however, and decided to put more thought to it. I was going to sleep. I was not a pink pony with unlimited energy, and that party had been long, tiring, and filling. None of which was noticeable while in attendance, but outside of the environment, all were too pressing for thoughts other than, sleep.

Author Note:

I have seen that

Read and Review, is all I can ask for now though all I can say is either encourage, or don't discourage me now, OR tell me to stop. I don't want to be around fifty thousand words, and suddenly see the people actually saying, "Why are you still doing this? We wanted you to stop!." I would be very annoyed. We (pony fans) are a caring culture, and wouldn't do such things in the first place, but we also as humans, should know when to give advice that others don't wish to hear. Anyway, THANKS for Reading my work! Makes me happy to see that, so far, at least three people have enjoyed it!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hydra Plight

After waking the next morning and going about the normal routine, jog, return, do morning chores, prepare for the day ahead, I had an odd feeling. I don't like to have odd feelings, they often mean either something good, or, more likely, something bad. I decided to ignore the possibilities for now, but kept my eye out for anything out of the ordinary.

Things seemed just like a normal day, everyone was going about their business as normal. Nothing suggested danger of any sort. I very quickly spotted an odd happening. There was a pink bullet, dodging from one piece of cover to another, with a hat on its head. Twilight and Spike, standing outside on a slight rise, noticed the same thing. Twilight, working on a new selection of spells, and Spike being her assistant, did her best to ignore the odd mare. Spike on the other hand, was not so lucky. He managed to break concentration and cause the transfigured cloths and hat to turn back into their respective materials. Unfortunately, the hat above his head turned back into a sizable stone. As he got attention diverted from concentration to the pink party pony, Twilight realized how different she was from normal. She usually only acted strange, now it was like she was scared of something. This brought the days set of exciting events.

"Pinkie? Whats going on?"Twilight inquired.

"Twitchy Twitch!" The confusing subject answered, "Thats my Pinkie sense telling me somethings going to fall!"

Twilight looked quickly up, and around, an concluded, "Pinkie, thats ridiculous, it is a perfect day! What could possibly come falling from the sky right at this mo-" She was cut off by a frog landing across her face.

"Rrrrrrriibbbttttt!" The amphibian declared.

"He said, "Great Catch" In frog" Pinkie translated. How she could possibly know frog, we never asked.

Fluttershy quickly swooped down, with a cart of frogs, which she had taken from a nearby pond which had an overpopulation problem. "I'm so sorry Twilight! Are you okay?" The genuinely concerned pegasus asked.

"Why yes, yes I am Fluttershy. Though, why are you flying frogs in that cart?" Twilight replied.

Fluttershy responded, "Well, their home was seriously crowded, and I couldn't bear to see them suffer. So I was taking them over to Froggy Bottom Bog! That way the will have plenty of room to hop around and play."

"Well," Twilight began, "So long as your careful. I'm sire this will be okay in the end".

"Yes Twilight," Fluttershy assured, "I will be careful, and will see you girls later1 Bye!"

"Goodbye!" Pinkie and Twilight said in unison.

"Um, Twilight? You've got a little something on your face there!" Pinkie observed as Fluttershy flew away.

"Hmm, Really? Did your Pinkie senses tell you that?" the exasperated Twilight asked.

"Nope, I could just see it!" Pinkie exclaimed.

As she trotted away singing, Twilight and spike headed back to the library, where they could practice magic with more peace. Before they had gone twenty steps, Pinkie came running back.

"My tails twitching again! Something else is going to fall!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight scoffed, "Ha! Not likely Pinkie, there's no way something else will just randomly fa-" And she was cut off again, as she dropped into a ditch.

Spike, alarmed, asked, "Is it safe to go help her?"

Pinkie replied, "Yes, the twitching stopped."

Twilight, again at the receiving end of fate, got up and began her lecture on how coincidences happen, and it was not likely for it to be a real thing to Spike and Applejack, who had shown up just a little bit before. When Pinkie came back yet again, and proclaimed that she would be starting a bath for Twilight. Shortly after which Twilight was covered in mud by a passing cart.

Having seen these strange events, I was quickly relieved to see that I was not being targeted by mysterious woe, but also unnerved, as I still had my gut feelings about something going down today. Twilight had been gone for about an hour, and was back with Pinkie, in the basement, doing 'science'. I had to wonder at more, as those machines made no sense in their society. I was worried, for Twilight had become quite obsessed with the Pinkie Sense. And when people get obsessed with things, they are often blinded to the obvious. Which was proved through out the following few hours, Twilight quietly stalked Pinkie, taking notes and observing behavior. She eventually got Spike to tag along, which probably didn't help her much, as she was still stung by bees, fell down a flight of stairs, and had half a moving truck's contents dropped on her. She proved to be as tough as Rainbow Dash though, as when Pinkie told Applejack that she was 'letting Twilight secretly follow her', Twilight quickly appeared, beaten and bruised, to demand why she hadn't said anything before.

"If you knew I was following you, WHY DIDN"T YOU SAY ANYTHING?" Twilight yelled.

"Silly," Pinkie began, "That would have spoiled the secret!"

Twilight was about ready to explode, but Spike first asked, "Tail, still twitching?"

Pinkie replied, "Nope, clear skies from here on in as far as I can tell." Then, her body was rocked with a shudder. "Whoa, never felt that before, whatever it is, its a doozie!"

I had caught up with the group, as I had gotten done with chores, and tired of waiting for things to happen. I knew about the 'Pinkie Sense' from catching Twilight talking with Spike earlier, but was sketchy on the details. So I listened intently as she went on.

"This is a real doozie, and whatever it is, its going to happen at Froggy Bottom Bog!" she finished. This was met with exclamations from the rest of us, that is where Fluttershy had gone! Whatever trouble she was in, we had to help!

The trip to the bog was quick, even for me. Though they did leave me behind, most likely forgetting that I was fast, but nowhere near as fast as them. This was okay. I likely wouldn't be able to help in that kind of environment. I reached a hill that gave me a good overview of what was going on below in the bog.

I was able to see the others arrive in the open swampy area, and begin to search for our shy friend. They were able to quickly find her, and Twilight had began to rant about something or other. She was relatively quickly stopped, however, as four massive necks topped with snake-like heads rose from the bog. Other than the quickly let go thought of "HOW DID THAT HIDE THERE!" running through my head, I was astonished, and quickly worried. That looked like it was ready for lunch. As the hydra pulled itself the rest of the way from the ground, and began to chase them I decided it was ready for lunch. I traced their path, and saw they were heading for a nearby hill. I was unfortunately, on the wrong side of the chasm to help the ponies as they drew near, but I could tell that something was still not right. Even after they jumped across and had their moment of realization, I still was off. The other hydra had given up too easily. Like we were still caught. I watched the waters below, and saw it was right.

I shouted, "Another one!" in warning as the newcomer rose from the depths. This hydra had eight heads, all just as large as the previous one, and a body much larger. We began to run for safety, woodlands nearby, but we came to another pinch spot. We each had to make a slight jump, and it was easy. About five feet across the gap here. They hydra actually couldn't even follow us here, it had gotten held up in the chasm a little ways back, but as Twilight was about the make the jump, she slipped. She landed with an oomph, and was barely hanging on as we ran back to help her up. The longest-necked head of the hydra decided to give us a shot at biting. It was easily apparent that it would reach us, with a few extra feet to speak of. This was what I had felt. Someone was going to be hurt today. Who was the question.

Still not quite pulled over the ledge, Twilight was the target. That was not going to happen. I owed her too much, and gave it my all. We managed to get her just out of the way, but there was still another chance for the strike. The hydra changed corse partway to us. It veered for Applejack, who was a few feet from me. I decided to act, I gave a mighty shove and knocked the off-balance farmer pony out of the way, at the cost of being in the way myself. We had gotten everypony just out of the hydras reach, but I was just close enough to catch it's venomous fangs. I felt them firmly clamp down upon my right shoulder, and pierce my skin. The burning sensation quickly encompassed my torso, and had to emanating points, which were like white hot rods, on the front side of my shoulder and just below my shoulder blade.

The hydra quickly released me from its grip, as it received a bucking from the earth pony whose place I had taken. As I fell to the ground, I felt the venom begin to work. I was able to recall a few things about hydras as my vision faded out. Most importantly, that they were one of the most deadly creatures in the world. Their venom was not that strong, but they had so much that if they were to get only a tenth of it into a pony, the pony had an hour and a half, without treatment, before death. I had gotten about a fourth, in my chest. This gave me about half an hour.

They had to act fast, Twilight knew. That much venom could kill in about half and hour. They were about half and hour from the nearest hospital. Time was short. Applejack and Twilight quickly got Randis draped between them, and secured with rope, which Applejack always carries. At full speed they could just make it. Just.

Pinkie and Spike were to follow the laden unicorn, and farm pony, while Fluttershy flew ahead and got the doctors ready for the patient. They had to be ready to administer the anti-venom and magically support something that would be under immense stress. This could possibly be a losing battle.

As it turned out, it almost was. The venom had been given enough of a chance to reach nearly all vitals before magic was able to be applied. After they began to gain an advantage though, the unicorn physicians were able to quickly reverse the effects. Not completely. Hydra venom was slightly magic resistant. This meant that even if you were to counter it in time effectively, the victim still had to go through about a month of recovery from the damage that was not reversible. In my case, I would have to go through at least a month of pain flashes, and nearly constant fever. It was possible that the situation could turn either way and so, to be safe, I would have to remain in the hospital for a much longer time than before. The month would be long, and painful. I had, however, done another bit of good since coming to their world, and had repaid a bit of their hospitality. And, the mane six, were realizing a little more, that I was a good individual. As for the next month, I just decided, challenge accepted. Worst Idea Ever.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

About a month after the hydra incident, Randis was released from the hospital and allowed to go back to work. This was great news for him had no clue what had been going on while he was bed ridden. He had seen many things from hopping hay-bales, to cotton-candy clouds that rain chocolate, to upside down buildings, and many other weird things that had happened in the last few days. He had witnessed TWO rainbow explosions in the last month, and wanted to know what was going on. Surprisingly, after what had appeared to be the pony equivalent of World War Three, he saw that nothing had been damaged, or at least if it had it was fixed already. He had to find out. As he walked up to the library door, and was promptly smashed against the wall by the opening door. As Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity left and Twilight bid them good-bye, He made a mumbling sound.

"mmhhhnnfff" Randis complained.

"Huh?" Twilight looked behind the door and pulled me from the wall with her magic, "What were you doing back there?"

"Saying hello to our wonderful library," Randis replied, sarcastically, "Actually, I was just discharged a few minutes ago, and was coming to see what had happened. From what I could hear it sounded like you were at war!"

"Oh...," Twilight faltered, "Well, lets go inside, I can explain there."

"Okay," He replied, with a bit more sympathy, whatever had happened, had been rough. She was usually so eager to explain anything.

As they closed the door and headed for the sitting room, Spike looked up from the stacks of books he had been sorting and waved in greeting. In the sitting room, Twilight took a seat on the couch, and Randis took a chair opposite from her. She began.

"Well, what did you want explained first?" She inquired.

"Hmm, if you want, just start from after I was admitted for the bite, please." Randis replied.

"Okay, Shortly after you were admitted..." She continued. She explained the events from the flyers competition, to the being frozen in stone, to the diamond dog incident, to model Fluttershy, to the buffalo herd in the scrubland, to the princesses visit, to the realization that Rainbow Dash had caused them all to find their cutie marks, to Spikes jealousy of her new pet Owlicious, to Pinkies slight breakdown, to the Gala, then she paused.

"Whats wrong?" Randis asked.

"No, nothing, Shortly after the Gala, Discord, an ancient..." She looked a little sad as she explained the events of Discord over the last few days. It was most likely because she saw how fragile friendship could be, but at the end she was a little more hopeful, as she reminded herself that if you fight for it, friendship will survive.

When she had finished, we sat in silence. Her to reflect on what had happened, he to absorb all that he had missed. How could that much stuff happen in a single month. Things happened fast sometimes, sure, but all of that, and to think that there were other beings out there like Celestia and Luna, other deities. Hopefully no others wanted to stir up trouble.

With tales told, and night falling, they went back into the routine that had been off for a month. Spike got early shut-eye, and Twilight went back to studying, while Randis finished the nights chores. He was done at about ten o'clock and was asleep before Twilight gave in to fatigue. Randis was stuck thinking, however, about the strange things that had started happening in Equestria. Before he had gotten out much, he knew that nothing as odd as these recent events had occurred. It was all harmonic. No chaotic deities, no phase shifting hydras. The world was entering a new time, as many could tell.

Early the next morning, Randis had completed breakfast, and retrieved the mail. He had had a quick conversation with the mail mare about muffins, such as favorite type, and different recipes. He enjoyed the mornings as much as ever. Even when Twilight was cranky for staying up too late, she hid the fact well in front of company but friends and normals in her early mornings new better. This morning had a happy feel to it, for many reasons. One was that it would be the first full day he would spend out of a hospital in a month, something anyone would relish, and another was that he had particularly started to enjoy acting as the standing librarian during the day. Enough ponies came to the library to make life interesting. Especially after they had gotten used to their bipedal book watcher. Many had avoided the library while he was standing in temporarily for Twilight, or Spike, for about a week after the announcement in the town hall. As time when on, however, and they saw Randis more often the ponies, naturally, began to accept his difference. They were always a more trusting group, and never very violent, so once he proved that he was a good guy, more showed up at the library during his working time. Today was no different.

It was about ten in the morning, early, but not enough for anyone to still be asleep (other than a cyan weather pegasus), and Randis was working in the library. When the towns most mischievous group of little fillies came in. They had decided that they could get their cutie marks by becoming philosophers. Why any such idea dawned in their heads was a wonder, but it was always worth a shot right? So he tried to guide them in the right direction as best as possible.

"Well, philosophers you say? Thats quite a jump from your normal attempts," he commented, "But I will show you a few of the books on the subject. He walked over to the non-fiction section and grabbed a thick, dusty book with a faded title. "Philosophy," he read, "The Study of the Fundamental Nature of Knowledge, Reality, and Existence. Are you three sure **this** is what you want?

"Well," Applebloom started, "We hadn't heard of this philosfy, until Sweetie Bell here, said somethin' 'bout it.

"Yeah," Scootaloo continued, "What is it even actually about, it sounds really boring!"

"Hey," Sweetie Bell countered, "from what I knew a philosopher was someone who was super wise, and knew bunches of stuff. I didn't think we would have to do tons of studying. We're here already though, so what should we do?"

"Well," Randis began, "You could look at these books here, Mythology, A guide to myths and legends. You could all become Mythologists! Think about all of your favorite legends, like the old Canterlot Fury Fighter who single hoofedly stopped a legion of Discordian forces in the Chaos War! You could study things like that."

"Naw," Applebloom rejected, "We have other things to try first."

"We might come back later," Scootaloo continued.

"But thanks anyway!" Sweetie Bell finished before dashing out the door with the other three.

"Darn. I almost got them to read the Mythology books. Oh well, not for everypony I guess," Randis said to himself. "I will have to try something more appealing next time. Maybe something like..." He stopped as another visitor arrived.

"Hello?" an old earthpony mare inquired, "Is anypony in?"

"Well, no," Randis answered as he stepped from the non-fiction section, "But I can help."

"Oh, uh, good. I was wondering if you happened to carry any books on brewing?" She asked.

"Well, what kind of brewing. Potions, alcohol, cider..." Randis began.

"OH, alcohol of corse, it is my profession! Can't you tell?" She flicked her mane to the side, and stood taller. Randis noticed her cutie mark for the first time, a shot glass. This was new.

"Ok, are you new in town?" He asked as he began to look for the rather small selection of alcoholic brewing manuals, "And, if you don't mind me asking, why do you need to look up how to do your profession, if it is brewing, that is."

"Well, I know perfectly well how to, but I don't mind seeing if anypony has found a new trick in the last century that is recorded somewhere, as for being new, yes. I moved here recently from Fillydelphia. I wanted a change in the scenery and recently found out that there was no local market for my type of beverage here. What a shame! You were a shock though, what, exactly, are you? If you will have to pardon my rudeness," She informed.

"Well, I am a human, fairly rare specimen, the only, I think. I have found your books, we don't carry many of them here, as this town has a low population of drinkers," Randis answered.

"Oh good! I will have to check any that I have yet to read, out. Do you need any information?" She asked.

"Well, I will need your name, and mailing address. That is all of the required information to check out books," Randis replied.

"My name is Lenna. My address is..." and she went on to explain the rest and chat a bit more. This had been eventful so far. As Lenna departed, Randis recorded her in the library's log, so as to keep her information from being lost to human memory deficiency.

As the day went on Randis got many other visitors to the library, and serviced them all to the fullest. He was efficient even though the library had been rearranged a little since the last time he had worked. As five in the afternoon came and went, the ponies looking for books, had all gone. This gave Randis some needed time to think. He had to wonder at a few things. He considered everpony he met a friend. While he knew that many of them would only consider him an acquaintance, he hoped one day he would be able to relate with the rest of the wonderful town he now lived in. He also put some thought to why things were getting a bit chaotic lately. There had been a few rumors of rogues, and ponies denouncing the Royal Princesses. He would have to ask Twilight when she returned from a pick-nick with her friends. He had seen her earlier and she had seemed almost ready to have a nervous breakdown over something. She had gone on about being 'tardy'. Randis had considered going to help, but she had left the library fairly quickly when she had thought of some sort of resolution to her problem.

As Randis moved to go outside, Celestia herself, burst through the door. She looked very cross. She barely acknowledged Randis is she stormed in. A few minutes later, Twilight came through the door, head bowed in shame. Their conversation ensued.

"Twilight, I am very disappointed with you. Why would you cast a spell like that on your doll, and then proceed to get all of Ponyville caught up in your problem?" Celestia demanded.

"Well... I'm so sorry princess, I was just..." Twilight was cut off by the rest of the mane six entering the library.

"It wasn't her fault princess!" Applejack interjected.

"She shouldn't be punished because we were to insensitive to help her," Fluttershy added.

Celestia, seeing this the perfect opportunity, said, "Okay, I wont punish her on one condition."

"What!" the five newcomers exclaimed.

"You will all have more duties to perform as the Elements of Harmony. You may have heard rumors of rouges and those going actively against my sister and I. Taking care of these will be part of your duties. Along with more formal appearances, or are my conditions too harsh?" Celestia finished.

"No," They said, "We accept, princess."

With that they thought they had saved their friend. Celestia was actually going to let Twilight off the hook, as she herself had done much worse on accident before, but the opportunity for the elements to be an active force had presented itself, and like a smart ruler, she took it.

Randis viewed the scene, and was shocked at how they didn't seem to see what Celestia had said, they were going to be, more or less, soldiers. He had to help, things WERE changing, and not for the better.

Author Stuffs

Thank you all for reading and thank some of you (or maybe all of you) for reviewing. I may be making this a bit confusing, as I look back and see half of the chapter full of irrelevance, but I tried more dialogue, and using third person. What do you think? I kind of like the third person, and giving Randis a social life. Its up to you people though, because you don't sell what people don't buy.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The First Task

The next week was as peaceful as ever, despite the fact that the mane six were now essentially a military unit, Randis thought. Maybe, He would admit to himself, it was ok. They were more likely to be used as publicity, and for morale boosts, hopefully. It was at the end of the week, however, that Randis decided he was wrong. Twilight received a letter from Celestia early that morning. The letter stated:

My Most Faithful Student,

I must call you to fulfill the promise you, and your friends, made last week. You, of course, remember that I agreed to let you off the hook, if you and your friends agreed to become a more active force in our current struggle against disharmony.

I have received reports of a camp in a cave near Ponyville. This is an alleged recruitment facility for the rogues we talked about. I was informed that in two days time, the camp will have very few members who would actually be able to fight back if you were to assault it. There should only be four or five ponies in the camp at that day. This would be a good opportunity to show that we have the Elements of Harmony on our side, and that we know things about what theses upstarts are doing.

The purpose of you girls raiding the camp would be to send a message. To tell them that we know they are trying to disrupt our harmony, and destroy Equestria. You and your friends will receive some training to more easily handle the situation. I will send a pony, he will be there later today to meet you all and give you some basic training in fighting, just in case.

I am doubting that you will actually have a fight. The camp will be low on members, and with the pony I am sending, you six, and your human, you wont have a problem. Be careful thought, Twilight, I don't know how corrupt these ponies could be, or why they are actually going against us. Be brave, and you will have no problems.

Your Teacher and Princess,

Celestia

Ranids knew that Celestia's offer was bad news for the six ponies he knew best. He was, thankfully, included in the group that would go to the camp. He was allowed to view the map of the area that the princess sent to Twilight. As Twilight went out to gather the others, and await the pony that Celestia was sending, Randis went out on his own, to gather some supplies, and a weapon.

As the six ponies gathered back at the library, a new earthpony in guard armor greeted them. Randis was walking up the road as the seven ponies entered the library. He had been successful in obtaining all of the necessary supplies, and had managed to find a weapon. As he entered the library, he walked in on the Guard Ponies introduction.

"….and I am to be your trainer, and guide on this particular venture. My name is Quick Silver. I will be teaching you the basics on how to defend yourselves, and attack your enemies. It will be a pleasure working with you."

"Well, Quick Silver, when will we begin?" Twilight asked.

"Begin," Quick Silver replied, "Immediately of course."

And so they began to train. Randis actually didn't do that much. Quick Silver was at a loss for how to train a bipedal being. He decided it would be best if Randis just watched and learned pony fighting style, so as to possibly predict moves later on.

Randis was fine with this, however, as he had done training before coming to this world, and had, more or less, trained almost every day since then. He still had the different arts he learned down, and still knew very well the vital nervous locations. He could only hope that these ponies were no different from the ones in his own world, anatomically. He did pick up on a few things. One being that ponies would wield their weapon one of two ways. With their mouth, or with magic. The mouth grip made them fairly easily predictable, and was a bit limited. The magic grip, was highly unpredictable, and very versatile. Randis studied the way each worked, and how best to counter them. He was at a disadvantage if he ever had to face a unicorn, or a pegasus for that matter.

As the day wore on, the training slowed considerably. Which was rather difficult, as they weren't training very hard anyway. They were taught the basics of the basics. They could hack and slash well. They could even block and dodge fairly well. Tomorrow would be spent planning, they decided, as the camp was likely not armed. It was a recruitment facility, not even a training facility. The idea that there would only be a few ponies there, less than their own group, was a relief.

As each parted ways after the training was finished, one thought was prominent among the six mares. "Was this really a good Idea?" They knew they did it for Twilight, and that they would still say yes to the offer if it was asked again, but was going and fighting really a good thing? The answer is of course, not unless you have to. And they did see this as a 'you have to' situation. The thought of ending the conflict before it got any worse was also there. If they made a big enough dent in the enemies morale, they could get them to see that they were fighting the wrong side. The Princesses were good! They represented Equestria, and through Equestria, Harmony.

Randis, however, thought otherwise. "This is kind of what I prepared for," he told himself. If he had come here not expecting conflict of any kind, especially after being summoned here by something, he would have been insane. Of course, he had been involved in conflict. With a dragon, and a hydra. But this was against other ponies. He just hoped that he didn't actually have top hurt anyone, too badly. He was already a human, he didn't need to be a bloodthirsty monster. On top of that was the deal he had with Princess Celestia. He had to protect the girls, or else. He had no problem with that though, he was that kind of person anyway.

As Randis and Twilight approached the library, each had a plan of sorts. Twilight, was worn out from the light training exercises. Randis, was going to finish chores and go to sleep, just to be well rested for the events about to take place. Each did just that.

The next day was all planning. Such as how were they to get to the cave, and which of the routes would be the best? They settled on a route that was a fairly straight path, with a fairly steep incline for about two hundred paces, and then would level off for about five-hundred paces, only to incline again up to a ledge on which the cave entrance was located. They each steeled themselves for the next day, and got to bed early, so as to wake early the next morning and head on their way.

When they each awoke, and had gathered at the library, Twilight gave a short inspirational speech about doing this for Equestria and for their friends and family. Quick Silver gave a quick speech about not letting their guard down, and then they were off. It was a short distance from town to the mountains, only about mile. So they left at a quick trot, and Randis at a jog. As they neared, the slowed down to recuperate a little, and view the task in front of them. A log trail winding up into the mountain. Well, not too long, only about fifteen-hundred paces. As they neared the base of the slope, Quick Silver spoke up again.

"Now," he said, "I hope you have all gotten ready for what we will be doing. It may be a hard thing to cope with, but going into battle, and possibly hurting somepony will help save other ponies. And if we can prove to this group of individuals that we will go the whole way, they will likely back down."

The whole group paused to let the words sink in. All of them had put some thought to the idea that they may have to hurt somepony, but they had not dwelled on that fact. Each thought a little more, and realized that they would have to do it, for those they cared for. So the trek began again. Up the slopes, to the cave entrance. They met no resistance, but that was expected. And at last, they stood outside of their goal.

The whole group went inside of the cave. It had for the opening chamber, a large room. It was about ten feet tall, and twenty feet across. There were various niches in the walls, some large enough to easily fit a pony into. The main entrance also had several visible side caves leading deeper into the mountain. Other than a few strewn rocks, the cave appeared deserted. This was strange, and did not bode well. If they had received word from Celestia that a camp was here, then there should be a camp here. They stalked further into the cave, and were met by nopony. Quick Silver decided to take a look into one of the side caverns, nothing. They were on the verge of going into another, when they heard a noise behind them. As they turned they saw their foe.

He was a tall, large, earth pony, with a helm, and a large sword in a sheath at his side. Next to this behemoth were six similarly equipped ponies, though they were all a lot smaller, and much closer to normal pony size. They all pulled their weapons free of their holdings, and closed in on the group. Now, had we been completely trained, we would have stood a much better chance, as there were eight of us, and only seven of them, but we knew basics. They might not know much more, which was a plus, but they still definitely knew more.

We were five feet away from the opposing force, when they spoke.

"Well, well," The large earthpony said, "Looks like our information was right, the six element bearers, and a couple of extras. This should be interesting. Remember the plan."

And then they charged. Twilight helped a lot by summoning a slight wall around two of the enemies. This at least temporarily lowered their numbers to five. Applejack and Rainbow Dash each faced off together against a foe, and due to greater speed, they were able to keep them at bay. Twilight and Fluttershy were able to fight off another, mostly with magically summoned doors. Rarity and Pinkie Pie, well, they were in a confusing situation. With Pinkie Pie being scared for her friends, she seemed to have received the ability to move wherever she wanted, and so the stallion they were fighting was extremely confused, while rarity attacked him with rocks, that she decorated as she threw them with her magic. Quick Silver and I each took our own opponent. Quick Silver wisely decided to take on the ring leader of the enemy, while I took the remaining crony.

As Quick Silver and the large pony exchanged blows, Randis removed his weapon from its sheath. He had managed to find a long dull sword, which was almost entirely for decoration. It would suit this fight well though, as he only needed to stall until he could get in close enough to knock his foe out. Which he proceeded to try to do. As luck would have it, none of this was necessary. Quick Silver managed to get a good hit off on his opponent, who called for a retreat. The only unicorn among the enemy pony group freed their trapped companions, and picked up their comrade who had given up agains Pinkie Pie and Rarity at retreated. They stopped at the entrance to the cave however, and enacted the last portion of their plan. The unicorn shot a bolt of energy at the cave ceiling, which began to collapse. They laughed as he teleported the group away, and we each bolted for the exit.

As we each took off at a sprint, Rainbow Dash slipped, but recovered soon enough to only be as far behind as Randis. The others had cleared the entrance by the time a large rock fell directly in front of Rainbow Dash and Randis, halting forward progress. They had been trapped, and the cave was still collapsing. Randis noticed a niche in the wall which was fairly large, large enough to hold at least a pony. He quickly pushed Rainbow into it as the place they had been briefly standing began to fill with debris. The niche was indeed large enough for Rainbow Dash to fit, and for Randis to almost fit completely. He learned he didn't completely fit as smaller rocks fell from the ceiling and pinned his right leg. He was able to look out at what had been a cave, and see that their small haven was blocked. As They felt the shaking stop, the could only guess that the cave had finished collapsing, and that their companions would soon be looking for them.

Randis held complete faith in the rest of their group, and knew that since they were near the entrance themselves, they would be found rather quickly. Rainbow Dash likely knew this too, but wasn't taking being stuck underground well. She had started to hyperventilate, and become a bit panicked. Randis thought quickly. He knew that it would be a but of a scare for a pegasus to not be able to reach the sky, and that it was a very uncomfortable position to be stuck facing a phobia, He began to say calming words, in hopes of calming the scared pegasus.

"Rainbow Dash, calm down, its okay, our companions will be here soon. They would never leave us stranded. We are ok, it wont take any time at all to dig us out, but we have to be calm. If we panic, we will only get into a worse situation." He said, he was never very good at motivational speeches, "Look, the cave-in stopped, if we can remain calm, then we will be able to hear our companions, and if they start calling for us, we can answer."

He reached back and put a hand on her shoulder, in hopes that while the couldn't see each other, she might find comfort to physically know some else was there. This seemed to more or less work. As they waited for their companions they each began to wonder. Did they really make it out, or are they stuck like us? The thought was quickly perished, however, as they could soon hear scraping sounds nearby, they were digging for them. They waited, the sounds continued, as they neared the others shouted out, and they answered.

"WE'ER HERE!" they shouted, "OVER HERE!"

Gradually the noise of shifting rocks drew closer, and soon Randis could feel weight shifting near his right leg. He had to wonder why it was taking so long. It had been almost an hour, and they were only a few feet from the entrance. He had to assume, however, that the others had to find a safe path to reach them by.

As the last few stones were moved, and light began to leak through the opening being created by Applejack and Rarity, each of the two captors of the earth, breathed a sigh of relief, each happy to have fresh air. As the enlarged the hole enough for Rainbow to squeeze by, and they began to work on the remaining stone holding Randis. Soon he too was free and was getting a little help in walking out of the cave. Once outside he saw that Twilight had been using her magic to hold up the ruins of the cave. After clearing everyone to a safe distance, she released her magics hold on the tons of rock, and the tunnel collapsed. As Randis was taken back down to the town by Quick Silver to, once again, go to the hospital over a broken leg, the mane six were talking among themselves. They each wanted to hear what had happened in they cave. As Rainbow recounted how she had stumbled, and they had both gotten blocked by a large rock, and how Randis's quick thinking had saved them. She also told them of how Randis had done his best to try and calm her fears of being trapped. Each was left with an individual feeling about the human. For the most part, they were of course grateful, that he had kept true to his word and was trying his best to help. For the rest, they were kind of at odds for weather he was an asset, or if he was actually a friend. Each would reflect upon this for a while.

As Quick Silver brought Randis up to the hospital, and Randis greeted the doctors,the personnel of the hospital had already prepared the needed materials. Which, as it turns out, was just a single unicorn who had created a spell which should mend his bone without a long wait for natural healing. As the unicorn prepared the patient, Quick Silver watched. The unicorns horn flared, and the leg was mended with little pain. Ranids was soon walking and cleared by the doctors, each pleased that the spell had worked.

They each then gathered back at the library. The mane six had arrived first and were inside waiting for the other two participants in the raid. As the two males arrived, they began to discuss what had happened. They had been fed false information, and had then been ambushed. As they eacb wondered at the implications of such a thing, they came to one definite agreement. The Princess had to be told. And so Quick Silver left to go and make a formal report to her majesty. They rest of the group soon parted ways, to go home and prepare for life the next day. Each with different feelings about today.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The First Scar

As Randis woke, he reflected yet again on the raid just days before. He, and the others, agreed that they had to find out what the enemy was really aiming for. Quick Silver had left and had yet to send a report back, so they had no news about what the Princesses thought of the misinformation. Finished with the brief review of what he knew, Randis continued his morning chores.

As he finished breakfast, Spike entered the kitchen area. He sat and looked a bit anxious. Randis popped the question: "what?"

"Well," Spike answered, "I've just been thinking about what you and the others said about the raid. About how you all almost got seriously hurt. And about how you saved Rainbow Dash, even though you got hurt doing so. I just want to know, would you do that for anypony?"

"Yes, I would do the same thing for anypony." Randis continued, "I am bound by my own honor, but more importantly, I do what is right. Though those might be the same thing. Either way, the answer is yes."

"Okay...," Spike paused, "...I was just wondering, thanks. For, uh, helping them all." He got up and as he was leaving threw a last sentence over his shoulder, "You're a good guy, just so you know..."

Feeling quite pleased, yet confused, at the compliment, he laid out the meal for that morning, boiled vegetables, and went to wake Twilight. He worked his way through the books that had been left out, as Twilight had spent most of the past few days looking for good scrying spells, which he would have to put away later. As he reached the base of the staircase, he heard the door to Twilights room open. As she stepped out, he called up, "Breakfast is ready, hope your hungry!"

She mumbled back, clearly not quite awake, "Okkkayy... I'll be rigght dowwn.."

He sighed, it was already ten, she had stayed up much too late, in spite of warnings that she would regret it in the morning. He worked his way back to the kitchen, and started to clean the cooking utensils he had used. She eventually, and sluggishly, walked into the kitchen herself.

"Ooh, good." She praised, "Vegetables. Good source of vitamins, and minerals. Very good food for anypony."

"Analytical as always, Twilight." Ranids stated, then questioned, "Did you find anything while staying up too late?"

She paused in her eating, and took her time chewing and swallowing. "Kind of," She began, "I did find something, but it would require a specific target to use it on. Not very useful if we are going to have to capture an enemy, and then release them? They would be to suspicious, and probably use a cleansing spell to remove any magic from the pony we used it on. Either way, I received new orders from Celestia. She has discovered a new camp, and is sending us, and a couple squads of guard, to take it out. The basic information I was given was that we must destroy the camp, and capture as many of the enemy as possible. The squads and our group will meet us on the north side of Ponyville. We are told to be ready for a full out battle, which I think is a bit harsh as we only just had our first raid. Anyway, I have to go gather the rest of the girls, and get us all to the north side of town."

"Okay, I will get my things together." Randis said as he finished the dishes. He began to make a list of the things he would need for the group do continue their endeavors, like his weapon, of course, and probably some medical supplies. How much of each, was a different question, as the squads they would meet probably had their own medics. He stopped his mental list as Twilight continued.

"I will go get the others, meet us north of town in one hour. We will each be outfitted with equipment there, Celestia even mentioned having some sort of armor for you."

"Okay," Randis replied, scrapping his mental list. He did decide to keep his sword from before, but maybe pick up a sharper weapon, if available. The decorative piece had served him well, but could be improved upon.

Twilight left shortly after, and Randis sorted through a few books to pass the time. After about a half an hour, and close to a hundred books, he set out for the meeting place. It was only a ten minute walk from the library to the designated place. He knew for sure that it was the right place by the fact that there were twenty guardponies, and the familiar Quick Silver. They also had accompanying them, a small caravan of wagons with assortments of weapons, and armor. Randis was motioned closer by Quick Silver, who was standing near the armor carts.

As Randis approached, Quick Silver called to him, "We've got something here you will like to have in battle. Celestia herself supplied this." He pulled out a chain mail shirt, and what appeared to be a Teutonic kite shield. "She said something about medieval humans using this stuff. Looks about like ours, but is obviously for a human. Probably not anywhere near as good quality."

"I'm sure it will do just fine," Randis countered, "So long as I don't take any sort of stabbing attack. Anyway, Do you have a sword like the one I currently have," He brandished the weapon, "but sharp?"

"Hmm," Quick Silver contemplated, "Let's see." They walked over to the weapons carts, and searched among the plentiful types, lengths, and sharpnesses. None seemed promising, until Randis spotted one hanging behind a selection of longer swords. He moved the others out of the way, and removed the target from the rack. The sword was perfect. The blade measured a little over three feet in length, with a two-handed hilt. The blade was strangely light compared to the slightly smaller, decorative sword he had been using. Quick Silver saw his slight confusion, and said, "It's lighter because it is properly balanced. The fact that you actually managed to fight well with that decorative piece, is almost astonishing. You should be able to do worlds better with this."

"Then I may use it?" Randis asked.

"Yes, thats why we brought these. We have a surplus thanks to the fact that we have't seen major conflict for decades," Quick Silver assured.

Randis thanked the guardpony, and decided to test the new sword a bit. Taking a few experimental swings, and a few jabs. He marveled at the balance, and effortless swipes he could make. The last bit of impressiveness was the sharpness. The blade was sharp enough to cut easily through anything he had it meet. The thing that struck him as odd, was that a blade he could easily wield, was in with the pony weapons. It was obviously for humans, as the pony grips were different, more suited for them to wield with their mouths. Probably from the same place the chain mail and the shield came from. He tried using both the shield and the sword, feeling a little off, as the sword was slightly difficult to use with one hand, but manageable. He pondered further into how he should have learned more on swordplay in college, but he had to keep his mind in the present. Namely because the mane six had arrived.

They walked up the slight rise from Ponyville, and arrived at the makeshift camp to be armed, and armored. Each was given a set of armor that the average guard pony would use. Each looking a bit uncomfortable in the heavy plates, but managing. They were each given a weapon. They took their time choosing one that fit them the best. Twilight favoring a medium length blade of about two-and-a-half feet, wieldable easily with either the mouth grip, or telekinetic magic. Applejack, favored a blade of nearly the same size with a slightly larger guard, as she would have to wield it with her mouth. Pinkie choose a shorter blade, about a foot-and-a-half with a larger guard. Rarity took a dagger of about one foot in length. Rainbow Dash settled on a blade longer than both Applejack's or Twilight's, most likely just to say it was so. Fluttershy took a dagger, roughly ten inches long.

Once they had been outfitted, the mane six were brought to the center of the camp, along with Randis, to be briefed by Quick Silver. He gave them the specifics on the camp. The likely amount of ponies to be occupying the camp, and lastly, that his scouts had reported there to be high ranking pony among the normal operators. He gave a quick speech over them having plenty of soldiers to easily outnumber the enemy, and more skill. With that, they took off. They wagons with armor and weapons were taken back to the nearest guard base where they were taken from earlier, and the rest of the force, moving out.

They headed north, into a slightly boggy forest. The camp was nearby, with noon approaching, they would rush the enemies before they had any idea what was happening, or so they had hoped.

Quick Silver ordered his force to spread out around the south side of the camps perimeter, and wait for his signal to charge. Once given, the force of twenty guard, plus Quick Silver, Randis, and the mane six, burst into the clearing. They were met by a force of mostly-ready opponents. They did outnumber them considerably, but were initially shocked. This was supposed to be a surprise attack. They had been tipped off, again.

The battle began with the clashing of steel on steel. Swords met, and ponies screamed, as lucky, or skillful, swipes made it past defenses. Nothing life-threatening this early, but these were only the first few moments. The mane six kept mostly together, and worked on the defensive. Quick Silver and Randis found themselves near eachother, each fighting a foe of decent prowess. The rest of the Equestrian Guard distributed themselves among the rebel force.

At this point the victor was obvious, the rebels were outmatched, and outmanned. The Equestrians pushed them back towards the camp-proper, among the tents, material stores, and slight fortifications. This is where they got surprised yet again. A group of ten new rogues came out of the camp, and they were followed by a unicorn, who began to cast different battle spells. Twilight, seeing this, began to cast counter spells, and so a battle of magic began over the battle of man, pony, and steel. When some of the new-comers revealed themselves to be pegasi, Quick Silver shouted a command and his own pegasi rose to counter the aerial ponies. The guards were outnumbered now, and were pushed back a few yards, but the rogues were still relatively inexperienced. This was quickly realized by the Equestrian Guard, and exploited. As they rogues fell, weather living or dead, they were pulled out by one of the many medics on the Equestrian side. Their goal was to prioritize in treating their own, but save the lives of anypony they could.

The rogues were quickly becoming overwhelmed yet again, and were cornered into small groups. The unicorn battling Twilight was surrounded by about ten of her own, better trained, soldiers. Randis watched however, as the enemy unicorn finished a spell that caught Twilight off-guard, and appeared to have knocked her unconscious. He quickly resolved to take out the opposing magic user, any way he could. She had stopped using any form of actual magic, having apparently been worn out, in that respect. As Randis began to try and figure a way to the opposing commander, he received a blow to the ribs from the pony he was fighting. There were a couple of cracks, but Randis was forced to ignore them in order to face the life or death situation before him. He struck out as quickly as he could, and got inside of the opponents guard, crippling his front left leg. He then used his apponents newfound surprise, to do the same for the other leg. His opponent, now immobile, quickly yielded. This gave Randis the perfect opportunity to head for the unicorn. He turned and saw Quick Silver finishing his fight as well, and voiced his idea.

"We need to take out that unicorn," He said, "She's holding them together!"

"Yes, I can get you inside that circle, If you are willing to face her." Quick Silver replied.

"Aight, I can handle that," Randis replied. Fully hoping he could. They worked their way towards the circlet of enemies around the unicorn. Along the way they picked up a few other guards, relayed the plan, and formed a wedge. The mane six, minus Twilight, also followed. The Guards formed a wedge around the five and Randis, and charged the circle. As they broke, the wedge split so their protected inner group was able to confront the unicorn. As they approached, she cast a quick spell, having either regained some power, or not completely run out, and knocked three of the group unconscious, namely being Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. The rest were left slightly dazed. She took this opportunity to charge Applejack, swinging her own sword with magic, and putting the orange orchard pony on the defensive. The unicorn had considerable skill, plus the unpredictability of magically manipulated weapons, making fighting her very difficult. As Applejack took a more solid defense, and Rainbow Dash took an offense bringing the unicorn to the defense.

This turn didn't last for long, as Dash's brash charge was just that, a brash charge. Nothing to back it up afterwards. The unicorn even managed to strike Rainbow Dash where her armor didn't cover, giving her a shallow cut along her belly. Wounded, Rainbow backed off, and went to get herself, and the other three out of immediate danger. Applejack was on offense as Randis moved in to help. The unicorn keeping both at the distance of her sword, and safely away, until her magic died off.

She was stunned, as were her opponents, it was rare for a unicorn to exert themselves beyond even being able to telekinetically move objects. She was not out of options yet, as she grabbed another sword from a fallen ally, and began the attack again. She closed in, blocking, and slashing back at each of her opponents. As Randis struck foreward, the unicorn dodged towards Applejack, who then made a slash at the unicorn, who dodged over the blade, and slashed Applejack's rear left leg. Applejack yelled in pain, and dropped her weapon, while Randis had turned, and was again fighting the unicorn, keeping her away from his injured companion, and putting up more, and more of a solid offense. He managed to score several small hits, and one more serious strike upon the unicorn. At last, he managed to strike the unicorns sword in such a way, it was thrown from her grasp. He had overextended himself though, and was off-balance, which the unicorn used to her advantage.

She stomped upon his blade and threw it from his grasp into the ground. She then moved in and twirled to buck him with both of her hind legs, to which he raised his shield. The shield did indeed stop her from hurting him too severely, but the force of the blow dislocated his arm. She came in quickly, knowing she could strike, and charged Randis. Unable to lift his shield arm, and almost unable to lift his other arm, he was caught, she charged forward, and drove her horn into his ribcage. He gasped as she lifted him slightly, and then withdrew. Finishing her battle, and calling for retreat of any still able to follow. About six other ponies left, along with the unicorn, who gave one last vow for revenge.

Applejack, having been recovering, stumbled over to Randis to see what was wrong, he had fallen face down, and had not made a move to help anypony else. She rolled him onto his back, and saw blood pooling on the left side of his chest. Shocked, she stared, then, realizing the implications, called out, "MEDIC!"

As Quick Silver heard the shout, he looked up from his own wounds being dressed, and saw the situation. He sent the medic bandaging him over to the human. He had done a great service, and had helped win the battle, by causing the unicorn to pull back, and seek treatment. On top of that, he was not going to have any other names added to the already considerable list for this small battle. Four ponies had been killed, and a dozen injured enough to require treatment. The enemy had sustained worse losses, seven deaths, and twenty injured, they had managed to make the Guard look incompetent, by having been informed of the attack beforehand. He hurried over to hear the medic call for a unicorn.

The unicorn, who had been healing those who needed it most-badly, saw the wound. "Likely pierced one lung," He said, "Bleeding is severe, stand back."

The Medical Unicorns horn glowed a brilliant silver, and the wound caused by the enemy commander, began to bleed less, but the unicorn had to fix the internal damage as well, and redirected the magic to do so. After five minutes of reconstructing organ, and tissue, the unicorn stemmed the flow of magic, saving what little was left for anything else life-threatening. He had the earthpony medic wrap Randis's chest, and set his broken bones, as well as hold him to pop his arm back into place. If he had not been unconscious already, Randis would have been now.

The guard pulled out, and allowed the clean up team to move in and discover what they could about the camp. Twilight, and the rest of the mane six were woken, or bandaged, and gathered back outside of Ponyville. Quick Silver joined them, and informed them that Randis would be hospitalized to insure that all of the damage to his chest had been healed completely, and properly. He then proceeded to debrief them, on what they had learned during the battle. To learn something of true value.

Twilight told him, "I was knocked unconscious, because I used a very powerful scrying spell, rather than any sort of blocking spell. I can now spy on that unicorn, using this." She pulled a brass mirror from her bag. "I planned on giving it to you and your guard, though, because you would know more of what to do with the information. I hope you can find out whats been going wrong."

Quick Silver, taken back by this news, was ecstatic. They could spy on the enemies official, just as the enemy could see into their plans. They could possibly find out how they were doing so as well. He quickly thanked Twilight, and Headed with the troops back to Canterlot. The intelligence teams were going to have a chance to fight back as well now.

As for Randis, he was checked into the hospital for that week, to allow the wounds not addressed on the field to heal, the unicorn, it seemed, had done her best to finish him, as she had used magic in the attack, and had left a permanent scar. He was also raised a notch in Applejack's mind, and once again, she was forced to decide weather he was simply an associate, or a friend. She was beginning to think him more of a friend, than anything. As one doesn't simply go into a rage described, without reason. She would bring it up the next time she was able to talk with the rest of the girls, alone.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Success

As the week passed, and Randis was released from the Ponyville Hospital, yet again, He, and the mane six, met to discuss some news from Celestia. Twilight had received several letters, containing information about what the Intelligence department had discovered.

"Well, first I will start with the good news," Twilight began the meeting, "The spell wore off over the course of this last week. Also, they never discovered it."

As she paused, Rainbow Dash mumbled back, "Thats the good news?"

"Yes, yes it is Rainbow," Twilight replied shortly, "The bad news is that they have many more camps which we learned about the existence of, but not the location of. This represents an interesting problem. One, they are much more organized than we believed. Two, that they potentially have a larger force than our current armed forces. If each camp is armed like the last was, about thirty ponies, and there are close to fifty such camps in Equestria, then they have nearly fifteen-hundred soldiers. Our current standing army is only about five-hundred. And, of course, we also learned that the enemy has backing from outside of Equestria. This implies that the forces currently in Equestria are simply meant to cause strife inside of our country." She gave another pause for this information to sink in. "We are looking at the first war in close to a millennia!"

"Oh, that would be terrible!" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Ah bet," Applejack agreed.

"We'd be fine though, right?" Rainbow said, "I mean, we have the Princesses! They could do something!"

"Rainbow, even if they did, it would also take ponies in the guard to help them control the whole situation. They may be powerful, but Celestia and Luna are not invulnerable. They also tire, and experience fatigue. On top of that, Celestia never takes life, while Luna, has been a commander in several of the old wars," Twilight spouted, "She hasn't regained her full power from before she became Nightmare Moon."

"How dreadful," Rarity began, "Armor is fine, for show, but the idea of hundreds of lives being put on the line. It's almost too much!"

Ranids made no comment, deciding to mull of over the reports himself, in case Twilight had missed anything important. He found nothing of importance, though he did not expect too, and looked away from the scrolls. He then asked, "Have we been asked to take on any other camp yet?"

"Not yet," Twilight replied, "They are looking for another nearby. We know that there are many remaining camps, but not of their locations. We are, however, going to be receiving some more training. Quick Silver, and a few other specializing in different aspects of fighting are coming to help."

"Good," Randis said, "On both accounts. More training is always useful, and not fighting again without more training, is also good."

As they finished their meeting, they all followed Twilight, who was taking them to where Quick Silver, and the others, would be meeting them. The seven walked to the same place that they had met the troops a week before.

The light gray Quick Silver greeted them from afar, "HELLO!" he shouted.

Each of the seven stopped for a quick wave, and as they approached, took in the other three waiting with Quick Silver. One was a pegasus, with a black coat, and light grey mane and tail. The second, was a unicorn with a light tan coat, and orange mane and tail. The last was a unicorn with a blue coat, and white mane and tail. Each introduced themselves next.

The pegasus, who had a pair of crossed swords for a cutie mark, stepped forward. "I am Dark Storm. I will be training you two," He indicated Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, "In aerial combat."

The tan unicorn, who had a medical cross for a cutie mark, took a step forward. "I am Doctor Gauzen. I will train any of you to be a field medic. It is a very important task, and I am sure it would benefit for at least one of you to know how do be a medic."

The blue unicorn, with a crumbling building for a cutie mark, stepped forward. "I am Wrecker. I will teach you," He indicated the two unicorns of the group, "how to be battle ready. I specialize in demolitions, but am also well versed in other combat magics. It will be a pleasure working with you."

Quick Silver then added, "Of course, you all know me, but I will supply Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, with more in depth combat training than what me managed before. You each have a chance to take a dip into whatever field you would like."

Each of the mane six looked thoughtful. For Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash, it was easy. The each went with their respective battle instructor. Rarity and Fluttershy, on the other hoof, went to the medic unicorn. Pinkie thought a bit more, and decided to go with Applejack and Quick Silver for earthpony battle training.

Randis, left out again, floated from each session. He decided to go with the medic group, and learn a few skills he could perform, should he have the chance to not be on the receiving end of them. Then, after a while, he went to study more of the advanced earthpony battle moves. He had to admit, they would be formidable opponents when finished. Next, he went to watch the pegasi train. Noticing how they would use dives, and speed, to increase the power behind their strikes. Lastly, he went over to the unicorn battle group, and arrived just in time to catch the lesson on how you could tell what the opponent was likely to cast.

"You know, of course, that when we cast magic an aura forms around our horn," Wrecker was saying. "The intensity, form, and size of this aura can be used to determine what is being cast. So, if I was to be casting an incendiary spell, it would look like leaping flames. If I was to cast some sort of explosive spell, the aura would be moving outward rapidly. If you look for these traits in the aura's of your enemy, you can easily prepare an effective counter."

Ranids mulled over this new information. It would be very useful in a larger battle, with more magic being used by both sides. He was pulled from his thoughts by Quick Silver calling an end to their training. Looking into the sky, Randis saw that the sun had sunk quite low on the horizon. They had passed much time very quickly. The ponies dispersed, each heading back to their respective homes. Quick Silver, and the other trainers, had passed the group, and said the next time they would meet would, likely, be before they had to conduct a raid.

As Randis and Twilight returned to the library, Randis set about finishing sorting the books that Spike had nearly completely finished putting away. The task would be a relief from the constant preparation for fighting. Twilight, took a book on different horn auras, and headed to her room to study it. Just before Randis turned in, Spike was woken by the magic fire which brought letters from Celestia. He burped out the newest scroll and, upon reading it, hurried to give it to Twilight.

As Twilight walked back down the stairs, Spike shortly behind her, she had to scroll out and was busy taking in all of the information it contained. Randis had by now started making guesses as to what it happened to be. Either it was more information on their enemy, or it was where and when the next raid they would take part in. He had been mostly guessing it was the latter. When Twilight walked over to him and began to inform him of its contents, he found himself to be correct.

"We have a new target," She began, "This camp is to the east. We will be going tomorrow to attack it. This is a larger camp, and will require more ponies than what we had last time. They expect there to be, at least, forty ponies guarding the camp. There is reason to believe that they are also decently trained, unlike the last camp we conducted a raid upon. They likely have a magically capable group of unicorns, and at least ten pegasi. We will be lead in the raid by Quick Silver, Wrecker, Gauzen, and Dark Storm. We are to meet them, and their soldiers, on the East Road tomorrow, at sunrise. On another note, while we raid this camp, Celestia has ordered that there will be ten other raids going on across Equestria. The intelligence teams have come to the conclusion that these are the beginnings of forward bases, making it imperative that we take as many out as possible, before the enemy has a chance to reinforce them. Celestia has confirmed this will lead to war within a year, and has begun a new campaign of recruiting for the armed forces."

"So, we had best be ready for tomorrow then," Randis replied, "Perhaps we should inform the others of this new development now, so they may be ready for tomorrow morning. It would be wise to keep them informed of events as they come to be, you know."

"Yes, I had thought of that. I was planning for each of us to go and tell them now," Twilight said, "I can go and tell Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, you go tell Applejack, and Spike can go tell Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Tell them to meet us on the East Road, at sunrise."

"Yes Twilight." Spike and Randis answered in unison. Each set out on their own way, Randis heading to Sweet Apple Acres, on foot; Twilight heading to Fluttershy's and Rainbow's, by teleportation; Spike on his way to Rarity's and Pinky's, likely to take his time getting each had arrived, it was already well past ten in the evening, so they had to wake their respective quarry. They spoke with their sleepy friends, and received the expected results. They understood, and would be there. Each prepared for the morning.

When dawn came, the seven were gathered on the East Road, geared up, and ready to go. They waited as the guards marched to meet them. There were thirty-five guards in total; five medics, including Gauzen' ten fifteen pegasi, including Dark Storm; ten earthpony soldiers, including Quick Silver; and five unicorn spell-casters, including Wrecker. As the company pulled to a halt, the officers, Quick Silver, Wrecker, Gauzen, and Dark Storm, moved to meet Twilight and company.

"Hello," the officers greeted, "Are you ready for whats to come today?"

"Ready as we can be on this short notice," Twilight answered. "I hope you may enlighten us on whatever plan you have?"

"Yes, we will," Quick Silver said, "We were going to split you each into the groups that you trained to be a part of. With talent like yours, we will be able to pull off this attack with few to no losses."

"I should hope that we could do that without extra help," Dark Storm said.

"Well, if we don't now, I would be worried," Wrecker laughed.

In lighter spirits, they each went to their assigned groups. Randis was settled with the earthpony group, just because he couldn't fly, or do magic. The newly assembled company set off, to the east. They would soon break from the road, and head into the Whitetail Woods. The company slowed down, and they were given the order to be quiet. The camp was close, and they would need the element of surprise for this to be easy. Randis was having his doubts though, as they moved into the woods. Nothing had been easy yet, even when it should have been. They had always been tipped off, or had been fed false information. He was watching.

As they neared the location of the camp, they slowed yet again. Once they had come to a complete stop, Quick Silver passed word around that they would spread out, and burst into the clearing, surprising the enemy. As the enemy began to recover, the unicorns would start to throw spells into their ranks. Mostly incapacitating spells, such as one to knock-out, or just stun, the enemy. During this time, if the rogue pegasi took to the skies, an equal number of the Equestrian Guard pegasi would meet them. It should be a quick, clean, and easy battle.

"Now!" Quick Silver roared, as they charged following his lead. They met the camps defenders, or some of them, in disarray, and were able to easily bring them down. As they were beginning to feel as if this would be an easy battle, the rest of the camp met them. There were well over forty camp defenders remaining, and they were in formations, and armor. This was a fully established military camp. As the Equestrians were met by the enemy soldiers, they tried their best to hold the line.

Randis, near Quick Silver, was close to the center of the battle. He had his shield up, and his sword ready, blocking his opponents swings, and conducting some of his own. He was occasionally given a brief moment to view the surrounding battle. He was able to do so when the pegasi took off, though they were thoroughly outnumbered, and when the enemy unicorns were in position, and fighting back. He watched as those around him began to be pushed back, as they couldn't defend and attack at the same time. He followed suit, until he noticed that Quick Silver, and Applejack, who was on the other side of Quick Silver, stayed put. Upon seeing the two try their best to hold ground, Randis followed suit. He pushed back even with them, and brought the Equestrian line from retreat, to holding position. Though, this was only one part of the battle.

Twilight, with the unicorns, behind the line, was listening to Wrecker, and when he gave the order to fire lethal spells, nearly cringed. This was going to be a complete first for her. She had fought in the previous battle, for a short period of time, but had never fired damaging spells at anypony. She did, however, soon begin to execute the order, as she realized that too many of the Equestrian ponies were going to be injured if she didn't act. She began to throw mass stun spells, and then untilized a few different spells to trip-up the enemy soldiers. Just when she was beginning to cope with this, she, and the four other unicorns beneath Wrecker, were give orders to target the enemies unicorns. All ten of them.

In the skies, Rainbow Dash was locked in aerial combat with two other pegasi. The entire pegasus force was outnumbered two-to-one. She was holding her own, but several others had already been injured, some badly enough to have to see the medics. She was feeling many different things. One was excitement, while another was fear. The rush of the air as she outpaced her opponents, and dove down to strike upon the slower pegasi, reminded her of the complicated tricks she was constantly working on for her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. The fear she was also feeling, was caused by a mix of things, like the fact that she was in real danger. While two slow pegasi were easy to fight, some of the others were much faster. She could outpace them all, but if she was fighting more than one, or two slower pegasi, she would be overwhelmed. She stopped suddenly as Dark Storm and another, enemy, pegasus shot through the air in front of her. She watched as Dark Storm threw the other pegasus into the ground by pulling from his dive at the last second. The other hit with a, quite sickening, crunch, and laid nearly still. Rainbow Dash realized that he was doing one of the only things that could reverse the tide of this aerial fight, he was removing as many of the rogue pegasi as fast as possible. She quickly began to employ similar tactics, luring the other pegasi into dives behind her, within their speed, only to zip behind them, and through them into other pegasi, trees, and the ground. When first employing this, she was close enough to hear the damage done by their collision with whatever they met, and was nearly sickened. She learned to not stick around, and began to more quickly pick out targets that were faster, or better fighters, than the rest, to get them off of the field.

In the medics' chosen spot, in the edge of the woods, outside the camp, Fluttershy, and Rarity, were coping with helping the wounded soldiers. They were oddly calm. Likely each thought, shocked by what they were having to do. Some of the wounds were no where near as bad as others. They would require only a quick bandaging to stop the bleeding, and the soldier was back out, helping the line continue to hold. A few of the more moderate wounds, had been caused by magic, and had to be dealt with by the head medic, Gauzen. They were currently dealing with a few of the worst wounds yet. Pegasi who had been nearly gutted, by the enemy wing commander. However, things were looking brighter. Their forces were no longer outnumbered. From recent counts by a few of the lesser injured who had been allowed to leave, the enemy's numbers had been about halved. They were on the defensive, and their unicorns were tied up by the Equestrians.

In the front line, Pinkie Pie, past Applejack on the far left side of the battle, was on the heavy offensive. She had seen a pony, which she had made good friends with on the way over, go down. This had enraged her. She had entered a different state of mind. Her normal happy-go-lucky, state of being was gone. Her hair had deflated, and she was fighting with incredible efficiency. She was leading a small push through the opponents weakened line, to help cut them into smaller groups. All was looking well, the enemy had been pushed back to the center of their trampled parade ground, and were being forced into the woods on the opposite side of the clearing that the battle had taken place in. They had defeated the enemy in the air a few minutes before hand, and the pegasi, who were still capable, had joined the earthpony line. Newly bolstered, they had been able to surround most of the remaining rogues, and had dispatched teams to catch those who had fled.

As the last enemy in the clearing had been forced to submit to the Equestrians, a cheer went up. As they had, in spite of overwhelming odds, been able to defeat the dis-harmonious rogues, and had lost no lives on their part. While the wounded were still being treated, others were receiving praise from the rest of their comrades. Among the most notable of these were, Quick Silver, Dark Storm, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Twilight, and Randis.

Some had been stunned when they heard praise for the human fighter, but when witnesses of his deeds had spoken for him, they did not object. Randis had been a pushing force on the right side of the battle. He had been the one to reverse the flow, from the enemies favor, to the Equestrians, and had saved several lives. He had defended those beside him, with a quick parry, or a stretch with his shield arm. He had also been the one to face the opponents ground-force officer. Who had decided to try to push the 'weaker' right side of the battle. However, when he charged the human, who he had deemed to be the weakest link, Randis had actually been able to dodge the wild attack, and had been able to slam the back of the ponies head with his shield as he went by. The force of the blow had been enough to nock the pony unconscious. This had rendered the opposing forces without the morale which every commander inspires.

Rainbow Dash was honored for similar reasons. Having taken out the opponents Wing Commander, and saved several pegasi by throwing those she was fighting into their opponents. Twilight was praised for being the one to take four of the opposing unicorns out of the fight, and Applejack and Pinkie, were praised for being the ones to help push the left side of the battle, and remain with Quick Silver, who was praised for standing strong in the face of the overwhelming odds. Dark Storm was praised for being the one to think of tossing the enemy's pegasi into each other, and the enemy's troops on the ground.

With the day won, they brought to company back to Ponyville, where they were to be stationed as part of the preemptive force against this enemy. Upon arriving, Twilight was greeted by Spike, and a letter from Celestia. The letter was, in fact, a report to her, and the officers. It was on the other strikes that had been completed that day, and on what little information they had learned so far on their enemy. When they had reported back, the assigned the soldiers loggings. They were able to go to Sweet Apple Acres, as there was always room there, the severely injured were sent to recover in the hospital.

By now, night had fallen, and everyone headed back to their homes, or places to stay. As Randis and Twilight headed to the library, they discussed a few things about what was likely to happen. First, with the new prisoners, they would, likely, glean some new information about camp locations, troop movements, and who, exactly, their enemy was. When they entered the library, Twilight asked him an important question.

"What do you consider us?" she asked. "I mean, are we friends, are we acquaintances, or what?"

"Well," Randis began, "I consider you all as friends. I do that for most that I meet. If you need to know why, it is because we, in the short time I have been with you all, have gone through enough, that I trust you each completely. I never had a reason to doubt any of you, and I didn't doubt you, but now it is a true level of trust. I consider that friendship enough."

With his monologue ended, Twilight reflected on what he had assured her of. She replied, "Thank you. I have been talking with the others, and we were each wondering the same thing. Were we friends. We had thought of you as a friend, only to wonder if you thought the same. Thank you, again...well, anyway, it is late, we may have to do anything tomorrow, I will be going to sleep."

As Twilight walked upstairs, Randis went to the spare room he had slept in since his arrival in Ponyville. He reflected on what had occurred. They had successfully removed an enemy camp from Equestria, with no losses at that; and he had, more or less, officially become friends with Twilight, and her friends by what she had said. This was a very positive turn, as, how was he supposed to help as best as he could without being considered a friend? He pondered for a while, thinking of what could be to come. As he drifted off, he realized, he probably had no chance at guessing what would end up happening. He would have to take it, as the universe dished it out. Unbeknownst to him, the universe did indeed have several things planned for him, or maybe not the universe, but, at least, the forces guiding his coming to Equestria.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

-Beginnings of War-

Twilight woke Ranids early the next morning, which was very unusual. Not because she was up early, but because she was up early enough to wake him. She informed him of a letter that had been sent to her by Celestia that morning.

"We are being sent out yet again. We will going to be targeting a real force. There will be up to one hundred of the rogues. The intel provided to us says that these were real, disciplined soldiers. We are to take the forces from Ponyville, and meet another detachment from Canterlot. This will bring our forces up to around fifty, so we will still be quite outnumbered. We are supposed to do our best to stop this force. The enemy force is attempting to move inward, and reinforce several key camps that still stand in Equestria. There is also a possibility that there will be more than ponies with this force, possibly some of the Discordian monsters," Twilight paused as Randis looked slightly confused. "Didn't you read about the Discordian war?" She asked.

"Well, yes. I looked into it. Especially after you sealed Discord away again, but I don't remember much about the Discordian forces themselves," Randis answered.

"Fine, they are the majority of evil remaining in our world. They are like the Orcs, the Trolls, Wraiths, and, one of the most dangerous, the Demon Lords. The last were his generals. They led his armies during the war over one thousand years ago. Discord created each one with his chaotic magic, and they were each almost as powerful as Discord himself. While they were not tactical geniuses, their abilities made up for that. He had twelve. All but three have been confirmed to have been destroyed. The rest of his creations, however, are still rather at large, as they were mostly without loyalty, and only worked together under his influence." Twilight informed, unenthusiastically. "The Orcs have actually formed nations in the time since they were created. They seem to have evolved slightly, and can make a sort of society. The trolls, are grotesque creatures, and just kill everything they meet. They work with each other, because they only feed on living things, and they are undead. The Wraiths, were all but destroyed. They had the power to corrupt, and infest nearly anything. They were few to begin with, and by the end, their numbers had dwindled to only a few scores." She paused for breath, and began again, "Now, I left off with... Ah! Yes, there is a possibility that some of these monsters may be with the force we will encounter. Most likely, if there even are, to be orcs, as trolls and wraiths are hard to control, and the Demon Lords, have yet to be seen in over one thousand years. There were rumors that when Nightmare Moon came to be, they had offered to help her. However, these rumors were never proven. Anyway, we will be gathering, and taking our force here in Ponyville, to meet about two more squads. We will have fifteen earthpony soldiers, fifteen pegasi combatants, fifteen unicorn battle magi, and five medics. We will also, of course, have the sergeants from before. You know, Quick Silver, Dark Storm, Wrecker, Gauzen, plus each of us." She elaborated.

"All right. What time do we leave? Later Today? Tomorrow?" Randis asked.

"We leave now," She replied. "I will get the others, and while you take this," Twilight magicked Randis the letter from Celestia, "To the sergeants, and tell Applejack. These are the official orders from Celestia, they will need to see it in order to counter their order to stay in Ponyville. We will all meet up with the other squads northwest of Ponyville. They will have the rest of the details."

Okay, then lets go," Randis said, "Wait, don't we need to get our things first?"

"No the new detachment is bringing new armor and weapons for our group, I'm off." And Twilight left, teleporting to one of the girls' homes. Randis then left at a quick jog for Sweet Apple Acres in the south, where the Ponyville division was staying. He picked up the pace, they would need to meet the other detachment from Canterlot as quickly as possible. They were to meet and stop the enemy division today, with great odds against them. This was going to be a day of tragedy, even if the battle went in their favor.

As each got their respective targets roused, they headed for the appointed meeting place. Once they had all arrived, the sergeants, mane six, and Ranids, started a briefing.

"Well," Twilight began, magicking them all a copy of the letter, "I have made copies for all of us, and will make some more for the detachments commander. You have all had a chance to read the specifics, and see that we will be in for a real fight today. How do you think we should go about doing this, lieutenants?"

"Well," Quick Silver started, being more of the tactician, "It would be best not to do this. However, we must, so I suggest that we set up an ambush. We can wait at a decent spot up the road from these rogues, and when the signal is given, jump them."

"Aye," Wrecker agreed, "That would likely work best. If we are given enough time, the other demolitions unicorns and I can set up some traps. Twilight, when the new detachment arrives, I would like to be informed of each of the unicorns specializations. With these ten new magi, we can divide ourselves into two equal groups, and be on both sides of the battle, assuming we attack the enemy on two sides."

"I like that idea," Dark Storm agreed, "I can keep my pegasi with the earthpony soldiers until the opponent takes to the air."

"Wait though," said Gauzen, "If you think about it, it would be best if we went to a pinch spot in the road, and fought them there. This would spare our forces. We will be nearly outmatched two-to-one! With you seven included, we will have fifty-seven, seven of which are medics. That means, that while we will have plenty of medical support, we will have weak lines. They have close to one hundred soldiers. We are not even sure of what, exactly, they will have on the lines against us! We shouldn't spread ourselves too thinly."

"Hes right," Applejack said, to some's surprise, "If we do that, the rogues will do to us, what we did to that last camp. We separated them, and beat them."

"I see that," Quick Silver said, thought, then spoke again, "What we will have to do, is probalby a crossover of both tactics. If we can get a good pinch spot, and at first attack from two sides, we can have them beat. I think we should have the bulk of our force waiting for the rogues, with the pegasi waiting for them to pass. Then we can all jump onto the road, and the earthponies and unicorns can block the forward route, while the pegasi attack the enemy from behind. After the enemy shakes off the surprise, the pegasi can take to the air, and join the rest of the force in front of the rogues."

"That might work," Gauzen said, "If we can pull it off. How much longer until the other force arrives here?"

They should be here any minute," Twilight said, "And we should also listen to what their commander will have to say."

The group pauses, as the sound of marching reaches them. They look down the road to Canterlot, and see the detachment coming.

"Say, Twilight," Quick Silver began, "Do you know who will be leading these guys?"

"No, I know that he outranks you all though. Other than that, the letter just said he was their commander, does it matter?" Twilight asked.

"Well, if thats who I think it is, Celestia wants to _really_ make sure we don' buck this up. Also, we had better start calling each other with rank in mind." Quick Silver informed her. "From the looks of their banner, I'd say that they are First Lieutenant Ironside's personal squad."

"And they are?" Rainbow Dash inquired.

"Well, mis Rainbow Dash," began Dark Storm, dropping back into the proper military way of addressing, "Lieutenant Ironside is one of the strictest, toughest, and best lieutenants Equestria could have. He had an actual field record, from the only war in the last century that has come close to Equestria. He, and his regiment, were sent to the aid of the griffons in the north. They were under attack by another pony nation far north of the Griffon Sovereign States. They had to ask for aid because the particular nation, was all unicorns and earthponies. They were a group that split from the rest of the ponies long before Equestria, and they always harbored a hatred for those of the air, they were the Terrestrians. The reason the griffons had to get help: the Terrestrians had excellent weaponry against flying creatures. The Lieutenant," He paused to gesture to the still approaching squad, "Was only a Staff Sergeant when he was sent north, but when his commanding officer was killed in action, he took command and lead his force to victory after victory. He was rumored to have used incredible force against his enemies, and not much less against his own troops. After the war he was a decorated hero, and by the looks of it, you will soon meet him."

What Dark Storm had said was true, the squad from Canterlot had arrived, and their commanding officer was on his way over to the group. As the unicorn drew near enough for his identity to be unmistakable, the sergeants saluted, and the other seven, unsure of what to do, did some saluting, and some odd attempts to stand at attention. This seemed to amuse, and annoy Ironside.

"Well, at least some of you know how to acknowledge a superior officer. The only ones here who should not be saluting, are the element bearers. You six, should be saluted by me, as you technically outrank me, however,for this mission, I am to take active command," With that, Ironside saluted the mane six, "And you," He motioned towards Randis, "Should be saluting every one of us. You have the lowest rank of any enlisted members of our military, within a hundred leagues. You are Private Randis, strange enough name, fitting for one so strange himself. Now," he looked to the sergeants, "I am guessing that you four have managed to hold order, somehow, without me. Let me tell you the plan." He pulled a map out of the air, it glowed a violent yellow, and unrolled it, "This is a map, in great detail, of the area we will be fighting in. Here," He pointed to a spot where a river, and a cliff were each on a side of the road, "Is where we will stand. You pegasi, will be waiting on top of the cliffs, while the unicorn battle group, with my stallion in command, will be waiting behind our earhtpony line to cast several spells, you will all be informed of the specifics by your group commander. This area of the road is only about twenty ponies wide, and so we will need five of the pegasi to stay with the rest of us. When we get there, I will finish explaining. This is almost a league away, and we need to be there within the hour, as the enemy will be there in just over an hour and a half." He then cut the meeting off, and called the troops together. His squad having spent the little time they had to wait, while the Lieutenant explained, getting the rest of the Guard ready, and in formation, fell behind the sergeants. Just before moving out, the Lieutenant stopped, and looked at the seven, unarmored, and unequipped members of the group.

"I almost forgot," Ironside admitted, "You seven need these." He again brought items from the atmosphere through magic, Seven suits of armor, with weapons, or in two cases medical equipment, were deposited in front of the mane six and Randis. "All of you get that on, you will need it."

They quickly got into their armor, and set off at a quick pace. A slight run for Randis, and a fast trot for the ponies. They arrived at the designated battleground withing forty minutes, and each got into position. Each group was told the plan in a briefing for the platoon, as it was now qualified. It was a decent one. The unicorns had two beginning responsibilities. First, set up traps that could be triggered when they wanted, second, cast a large enchantment that rendered the entire platoon invisible. This was also done to the pegasi. This blanket enchantment was set to break upon command. When the main force made contact with the enemy, the pegasi were to break their cover, and strike from above. When the enemy's aerial combatants were taking off, the unicorns would spring the traps. It should devastate their forces, especially as they would still be in tight ranks form marching. They would soon find out, as not long after preparation was finished, the enemy was heard. They were marching in a column of ten by ten. One hundred even soldiers, with five leading officers at the front. They never saw it coming.

The second the enemy was within striking distance, the entire Equestrian line moved forward the last few safe feet, and struck down the first line. It seemed like a piece of cake. Then, the Equestrians noticed that three of their own were dead, and three of the five officers, still stood.

Randis, was just to the left of Quick Silver, who struck down one of the commanders of the rouges, and was able to clearly see what had occurred. The three center members of their force, all from Ironside's squad, had struck out with, what would have been, and proved to be, mortally wounding blows. They had hit their mark, only to be absorbed by a shield of some sort, and reversed. This shield shattered, and as the pegasi dove, and the unicorns sprung the traps, the enemies enchantment was broken too, and their orcs, and trolls, were revealed. They had easily two hundred hidden soldiers, plus the fact that half of the visible, were actually just trolls and orcs with illusions cast upon them. The traps, successfully took out about fifty total, and wounded many more, but also did little to impede the enemy. They recovered nearly instantly from the surprise attack, and retaliated. The pegasi, finding no aerial targets, began to harass the enemy's ground troops, while the Equestrian's line, was faltering, and beginning to fail, to hold back the enemy.

Ironside, did not seem too surprised by the sudden bolstering of the enemy's forces, and ordered to commence the plan. The unicorns were hurling massive area of effect spells into the opponents ranks, mostly flame, or shock spells. The enemy was burned, and thrown from their feet, but continued to push forward. The pegasi were quickly called back to help bolster the earthpony line, and take place of the wounded or killed. The element bearers were again leading the push, Randis, Quick Silver, and Dark Storm, had formed a slight point, and were attempting to drove into the enemy, while Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie, were each holding position just ahead of the rest of the front line, not enough to make themselves more of a target than their neighbors, but enough to prevent the enemy from pushing as effectively. The whole line took a step back, however, when the first line of orcs was slain, and the next line, of orcs and trolls, moved to take its place. The trolls were some of the most repulsive beasts ever created. They oozed, and gurgled as they sluggishly moved to take the place of the fallen orcs. The trolls were not that good at fighting, but when you could cut one in half, and still be attacked by it, they were formidable.

The first fifteen minutes of the battle were some of the bloodiest, but slowly trolls came to fight beside the orcs. The trolls had to be nearly completely destroyed to kill them, one had to either cut through their head, and major organs in their torso, or just beat them completely into the dirt, to kill them. The Equestrians had obtained many injuries during this time, and their medics were severely pressed to continue to heal the wounded. The unicorns were starting to conserve their magic for those whose injuries were mortally dangerous. The problem with these events was: the enemy had only suffered around a hundred losses, including the deaths from the traps.

Randis and Quick Silver were side by side, fighting a pair of rather intelligent orcs, who fought with rather long, heavy swords. They were each about six-and-a-half feet tall, and very strong. They were darkly tanned, and brutishly cut. They were exceptionally wary of Randis, as they had not seen his kind before. Quick Silver managed to knick his in the ribs, which brought a steady stream of blood from his opponent. This would have been a relished victory, except for the orc going into a near rage, and moving with more precise and accurate swipes. Randis wove his new sword between his opponents guard and got a stab upward, into the orcs lung. The orc, feeling its demise to be near, gave its all in a final slash, which while it definitely would have been deadly, was futile, as Randis stepped aside, and knocked the blade from the orcs grasp. This act was not necessary, because as he did so, the orc breathed its last. At the same time, Quick Silver took advantage of his opponents distraction at the fall of its brethren, and slit his throat. The orc fell, clutching its neck while its lifeblood flowed freely. The two Equestrians almost congratulated one another, then they were confronted by a troll. This troll was slightly large than the others, about twice as large as the average, and was also rather fast. They were put on the defensive.

Rainbow Dash was next to the cliff, on the far right side of the battle, and was fairing well against an orc. The beast had done its best to strike through her guard, but she had learned plenty in defensive sword play. She wove her blade with surprising agility, and disarmed her opponent. Then she swung, it would have been perfect. She would have defeated her first foe, with her blade, but she hesitated. She saw the look of absolute horror in the orcs eyes, and stopped her attack short, only to be repaid by a backhand. The orc was not merciful, and had managed to stun Rainbow Dash. She was just barely recovered enough to see the orc raising its blade to finish her, when the soldier to her left, swung quickly around and bucked the orc in its stomach.

The orc dropped its weapon again, and was bent over, clutching its smashed gut. When it opened its eyes, it saw the sky, for the last time. The soldier had spent no time deciding what do do, and had beheaded the wretch. This act nearly made Rainbow toss her lunch, but she realized that the orc, all of the orcs, would have do the same to her, to any of them, without second thought. With that, she found herself facing another orc, and vowed not to make the same mistake as before.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie, were fighting side by side, and had, so far, been able to hold back the first two orcs they had been faced with. They were able to counter, block, or avoid andy attacks the orcs launched, and while they remained rather agile still, the orcs were quickly tiring. They had been on the offensive for nearly twenty minutes, with nothing to show for it. As they reached a point they could barely keep swinging their swords, the trolls behind them got tired of waiting for their chance at the ponies. They each swung forward with their massive arms, and knocked the orcs out of the way. This shocked some of the orcs in the line, and most of the Equestrians. Most of all, this was bringing Applejack and Pinkie closer to having to actually kill something, in order to live. The trolls were relentless. The did not tire, the had no need for weapons, as their massive arms were heavy enough to knock a large man off his feet. And they showed no mercy. They were trying to kill for nearly just that, to kill. They might also nibble on their kills, but mostly just to kill.

As the trolls grew more and more relentless, they began to become more furious. The ponies would just dodge, or avoid the attacks altogether. This caused the troll fighting Pinkie to have an idea, a rare occurrence in this species. It decided, if it struck with both arms, she couldn't dodge. So it did, and she couldn't.

The troll swung both of its arms into the air, and brought them screaming down on the pink pony. She saw them coming, and had nowhere to escape to. She was relatively flattened with a small squeak. This brought a quick response from Applejack. Seeing her friend smashed made her coldly realize how these beasts were, and she lunged with an attack that entered the troll above its left ear, and exited below its right arm. The troll fell to the ground with a sickening shlop. It was killed with one blow of pure contempt. Applejack was about to check on Pinkie, when the troll she had been facing took a step forward, and she lunged again, removing its arm. The beast was taken back, this pony had been barely willing to swing at it a moment ago, then it registered somewhere that she had also just killed the troll beside itself. This troll was also dead. Killed in a similar manner to the prevoius.

Twilight, and the other unicorn battle magi, were starting to run out of energy. Five of them had already retired from long distance spell casting, to melee fighting with the earthponies. Twilight had just finished casting an extensive concussive spell, which would shatter the eardrums of any within ten feet of where she had targeted it, when she was assaulted by fatigue. Wrecker was in a similar state. Each had been non-stop casting, and had the right to claim many of the enemies casualties for themselves, but would soon have to move forward, and take their places in the trenches, or the front line, as it were. She knew that they had to be careful was well, as the enemy had displayed a nearly equal amount of magical power earlier. She had run the idea pas Wrecker and he agreed, but had simply stated that the enemy would be busy controlling the trolls. That takes massive amounts of magic, and being as the three commanding officers still remaining on the enemy's side had disappeared, they were likely behind the lines somewhere holding their force together.

Twilight and Wrecker were working their way to the line now, but got there all the faster by a breach. Five orcs had formed a wedge which was able to pierce the Equestrian line, and the battle magi pulled their weapons free to counter this. The orcs, not expecting much resistance behind the enemy line, were cut down, and the breach sealed, as Twilight and Wrecker moved forward to take the place of two earthponies, who had been injured in the breaching. They immediately were finding themselves claiming just as many enemy casualties as before, for the orcs, and the trolls, had no way to counter magically controlled swords, clubs, spears, and any other object that was not an ally, alive or dead.

Fluttershy and Rarity were seeing some of the worst of the battle. They had treated a number of injuries, from gashes requiring bandaging, to ponies injured badly enough to need to be heal with magic, in which cases, the two's job was to simply hold the patient still. They were with a constant flow of the injured, having seen most of them more than once, and with breaks in between treatments becoming fewer, and shorter. They were given more of the work, two of the unicorns, left to join the front lines. Leaving them, and Gauzen to take care of the injured. By now this task was easy, you just stitched and wrapped. If the pain was bad enough, you gave them an analgesic, if bearable, you turned them back out. The battle had gone for thirty minutes now, and the Equestrian's casualties numbered in the single digits, while the enemy's numbered close to two hundred. Two of which had been ponies.

Randis and Quick Silver had advanced the line, having finished off their exceptionally large troll opponent long ago, and were each fighting actual ponies. These were disciplined, trained, and fresh soldiers. They had spent the last half hour resting, while the Equestrians had been fighting for their lives. Even Ironside had pulled out his blade and was slicing his way through the enemy to the left of the battle. He was no novice in swordplay, as to be a lieutenant required all the same training as a normal soldier, and then some. He did, however, pull back from the front, and gallop across to Randis and Quick Silver. He arrived, with Dark Storm in tow, and gave the three an order.

"You three are to lead a wedge into the heart of the enemy force. With only about seventy-five enemy soldiers remaining, the we need to push this battle," Ironside ordered, "Quick Silver, take point; Dark Storm, take right second; and Randis take left second. Once you have successfully pushed the enemy some, I will give the order for more of the guard to follow. May Celestia's blessings shine upon you."

With the order given, the three steeled themselves, and charged. They screamed a battle cry, and pushed the shocked enemies back, making steady progress, and being followed by more troops as the order was given. The opponents, unable to repel such a charge, were felled. As the Equestrians gained nearly thirty feet, they were stopped. The numbers had nearly evened, and all order had fallen apart. The wedge had been successful, and had caused the enemy to lose formation, at the cost of Equestrian formation as well. Each pony, and human, was in a one-on-on duel with another pony, or one of the few orcs, and fewer trolls.

Randis, having ended up slightly deeper in the enemy than Quick Silver, found himself near the element bearers, even Fluttershy and Rarity. As he wondered what could have brought them all this deep into the enemy's force, the area cleared to reveal the three remaining enemy commanders. They were all three unicorns, and had none of the fatigue the mane six and Randis had. It was at this point they dropped all other preoccupations completely, and the trolls, and orcs, stopped fighting, and then fought anything around them. As this began to happen, the three unicorns cast a multi color shield around the clearing in the battle, trapping Randis and the element bearers, with the three commanders. The first thing the three did was promptly beat the snot out of the seven Equestrians with their fully functioning magical abilities. There was mostly telekinetic lifting, and throwing, of the seven. At last, with them all beaten and nearly broken, the three spoke.

"Well, you aren't so tough are you?" said the first.

"Yes, we were told you would be the most difficult part of this campaign." said the second.

"But I guess that our intel was wrong." finished the third, tauntingly.

"If you hadn't been cowards, and hid behind hundreds of other creatures, you could have seen how tough we are!" protested Rainbow Dash, and received a magically broken rib for the effort.

"There, you see, we don't really care. Our job was to just kill you six, and this human can die as well, because, why not." The first informed.

"I don't think so," contested Applejack, taking a weak step towards the unicorns. "We aren't goin' down without a fight!"

"Oh, so you wont? Good! We like that attitude! Pity it wont last much longer." the second taunted.

As the three unicorns moved closer to the immobilized Elements of Harmony, they let go of the unconscious human. Who began to quietly stir.

The unicorns continued to taunt, and belittle the Elements, while Randis got to his unsteady feet. He grabbed his sword, and began to stumble to the obliviously gloating unicorns, and just as they were about to actually kill Rainbow Dash, who was helplessly struggling against the three's combined magic, he swung out, and sliced cleanly through one's side. The unicorn dropped, and quickly breathed its last, as the other two teleported back. Rainbow fell to the ground, hurt, but alive.

"Damn, how did we let that happen," began the first unicorn. "We should have been more careful, he was tougher than we had thought."

"Don't worry, I didn't like her much anyway," said the second, "She was to full-of-herself. Anyway, we can still do this just as well. We can even show them how pointless it is to continue to struggle."

Randis yelled, as he was lifted from the ground, and choked, as he felt the force tighten around his throat, only to feel another, friendlier, force fight against the collapse of his windpipe. Surprised, the other two unicorns let go of the human, and looked to the rather angry Twilight Sparkle, who had stood, and was lowering Randis to the ground next to her.

"You don't hurt my friends, and get away with it," Twilight said through clenched teeth. She began to cast another spell to attack the unicorns, only to be affected by a spell cast by her opponents first. She was firmly held in place, her power drained. With two very angry unicorns facing her.

"OH, so you are friends are you? Well, thats good, we can have you, kill your _friends_ for us. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Then we don't have to harm them, you see!" the second unicorn said.

"Ha, your crazy if you think you could even force her to hurt any of her friends!" Randis said. "You barely know what you are dealing with!"

"Oh, you can speak? Too bad your opinionated manner makes you first!" the first unicorn said.

"Do your worst to me, but let them go, or you'll be very sorry!" Randis warned.

"Whatever, say what you will, _human_." the first unicorn said, picking Randis up. She pulled the remaining armor from his form, not gently at all, and looked him over. "If the reports are true, than you have experienced a number of injuries. Including being stabbed by a unicorns horn, which is quiet painful. As the constant flow of magic is slightly corrosive to anything other than the owner of said horn. From what we know about you, Element of Magic, you have plenty of power flowing all the time. Oh, this is going to hurt both of you a lot, and help us complete our job, and teach you a lesson, at the same time! Lets see, we want the wound to be fatal, but not immediately so. Hmm, what do you think?"

"I think we just do it and get done with this, we have spent to long, and they are right outside the shield, trying to get in." the second said.

"Fine, too bad they can't see their Elements beaten. Anyway, looks like only three of them are going to see this anyway, the rest are unconscious," The first lamented.

And so Twilight, still being held by the second unicorn, watched in horror, as she came face to face with Randis. He looked her in the eye, and gave a slight smile, and just as he was forcefully run through by her horn, he said not to worry, he knew there was nothing they could do, and as his breathing became harsh, he claimed it his fault, for not being able to protect them better.

Then, Twilight was broken free from the bonds of the rogue unicorns, and Randis was lifted from her, and set aside. Magic already healing the new wound, Twilights eyes glowed white, and magic flared from her horn, growing in strength, until all there seemed to be in the world, was a bright violet aura, her friends were healed, and the two rogues watched in horror, as they, themselves, were being affected. They were being turned to stone, a punishment only given by Celestia herself, to the worst of the worlds criminals. They turned to statues, faces contorted with fear.

Randis, surprised as much as the rest by this turn of events, was soon made wary, Twilight was losing any control she had had. She was getting scared of the power withing herself. He got up, and fell, not quite healed yet, but got up again, and staggered towards the purple unicorn, and began to speak to her.

"Twilight, it's okay," He said as soothingly as he could, "You have done it, we are all fine, and everyone is safe. You need to calm down, everything is okay."

He was beginning to doubt his words had any affect, when the glow in Twilight's eyes dimmed, and died out, and she lowered to the ground, and lay down, unconscious. He decided this was for the best, and again wondered if he had done anything. Only to be surrounded by the rest of the mane six, and as the shield dropped, the remaining ponies of their platoon. He was growing less aware, however, as he had been healed, but was suffering from immense fatigue, and some blood loss, he had interrupted the healing, a little.

After seeing Randis collapse, Gauzen trotted into the circle around the group, and thought of what he could do. The best thing would be for rest, for everpony. Ironside ordered the platoon to return to Ponyville, except for those with no injuries, who were to clear the road, and remove of the bodies.

Later that evening, Twilight woke, she had full use of her magic back, but also full recollection of what happened. She quickly asked what had transpired after she had lost control. The witnesses told her what they had seen, and as they recounted the shocked story, Randis hobbled into the room. He smiled, and waved, only to be picked up by Gauzen, and moved back to the bed he had been told to stay in. Randis, had other plans, and as Gauzen turned to leave, knocked him out with a peaceful technique he had learned in his world. He then put the good Doctor on the bed, and went to see the rest. There were stories to tell, and things to be done. He was fine enough, he checked one thing before he left, and saw. His second scar. He would have to go assure the others he was fine. He knew he should.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The rest of the evening proved to be interesting. The other majors arrived, and all of the group swapped stories of the battle. Each gave their perspective on what had happened, and their concerns as to the enemies ability to sneak that many creatures into the country like that. After Quick Silver finished relaying a message the Princesses had delivered to the soldiers about how they had more than earned a rest, and how they would be given notice the next time they had information to go on. They had come to the conclusion that they had successfully stalled all rogue operations in Equestria, for some time at least.

The evening had worn late by this time, and so each took their leave. Gauzen had woken up some time before and rejoined the rest, only slightly annoyed by being given a forced nap. Each of the majors left for Sweet Apple Acres, to call lights out for the night, and the rest of the mane six each went to their respective homes. Randis, Twilight, and Spike were left at the library to try to fall back into a normal schedule. Both Randis and Twilight had concerns about what had occurred, and what would occur, but it could wait until morning. Everyone needed sleep after a day like that.

Each of the mane six, and Randis, had a little trouble getting to sleep, as while they had seen little skirmishes, this was different. They had been engaged in combat with enemies who would fight you until you permanently stopped them from doing so. While Rarity and Fluttershy had only seen the results of the conflict, as they had been behind the lines treating the wounded to go back out and fight once more, they had each been through equally as much as the rest. Lopping off an orc, or troll's, head, is just as hard as patching a gutted soldier back together. Each fell slowly into a slightly fitful, but relatively restful, sleep.

The next day, Twilight and Randis were each woken by Spike, who had decided to let each sleep in until after noon. While this was for the best, Twilight was soon in a bind with her well organized schedule. The morning had been chalked full of study time for more battle-useful spells. She had then planned to study some regenerative spells after lunch. With the morning time lost, she had to attempt to combine the morning's studies, with the afternoon's studies. This led her to a severe headache after about two hours of reading three books at the same time. She was forced to take a break, before returning to reading. She had the sense after that to only try two books at once.

While Twilight tried to make up for lost time, Randis spent his day off wandering the town. He visited each of the parks, and stopped in at Sugar Cube Corner to buy a pastry with the earnings he had slowly collected by working at the library. He saw each of Twilight's friends doing their daily tasks, not appearing to be phased by the events of yesterday. This was good, as that had been a fairly traumatic day.

The end results of the battle were: complete casualties on the enemies side while the Equestrians only suffered five casualties, and twenty major injuries. The five were each being taken back to their families with full military funerary processions. They would each be honored in great ways for their sacrifices. Of the twenty injured, fifteen were in the Ponyville hospital, with broken or badly bruised bones, while five had been sent back to Canterlot to receive more advanced treatment. The battle had been a major eye opener for the public, who had believed this would be nothing more than a few rogues, and vagabonds.

Twilight had received a letter form Princess Celestia, via Spike-mail, stating that she would be hosting a royal meeting on the likely war. In the meantime, she told Twilight to enjoy some time off. She had mentioned that there would be an assignment for the Ponyville division soon, but not until enough information had been gathered about the target. All that had been happening recently was causing Randis to feel more, and more uneasy. He felt like there was something leaning over his shoulder, leering at him. It made him feel a little threatened, and almost as if it was foreboding something. He cast these worries aside, however, as he indulged himself in the social life he had built in the home he had made in Equestria.

On the road between the Ponyville market, and Sweet Apple Acres was Applejack. She had gone to sell her apples, like most days, and had finished rather early. It was only about five in the afternoon, and she was heading home. She paused, looking to the sky, and thought of the fight. It had been slightly exhilarating, but ultimately troubling. While not overly so, the idea that she had personally ended lives was slightly disturbing. She wondered if she was the only one to think so, and decided that she would head to the library to consul with Twilight, once she had returned the apple cart to the farm.

Taking early leave from her actual job, Pinkie Pie had time to think. She found herself on the same line of thought Applejack was being troubled by on the outskirts of town. She felt just as disturbed by the events of the battle, and came to the same conclusion as Applejack. As it would soon turn out, so had the rest of the mane six.

Arriving back at the library, Randis was able to see Twilight, and her friends, in the sitting room. He caught their conversation as he entered.

"I think we all feel the same way, dear," Rarity said in reply to Applejack, who had finished speaking just as Randis entered.

Pausing by the door, Randis heard Twilight begin to speak, "What you describe is true, most ponies do feel a bit disturbed after their first real battle. It is detailed in many of the great psychological works of the Equestrian Royal Library. Also described are many of the ways ponies deal with the realization that they have killed. We each appear more or less alright, so for the most part, we have seen that we had to do what we did. We realize that if we had not, we would have been killed. We have mentally chosen to come away stronger from those experiences, rather than weaker or broken. If you start to feel exceptionally paranoid, or bloodthirsty, there may be a real problem. Please ask me about that. Now that we have those concerns temporarily pushed back, and Randis has arrived. I think I should tell you all about what we will be doing quite soon."

Randis chose to take a seat, since Twilight had specifically acknowledged him. After sitting, he asked, "What is it that we will be doing then?"

"Well," she began, "We will be leading an expeditionary force into a known enemy camp just beyond Equestria's borders. This will be an extremely dangerous mission, and hopefully one of our last. After this, Celestia said that she and Luna planned to formally announce war against the perpetrators of this conflict. We will be carrying out the mission at the end of this week, and then real military movements will be made."

"What do we know about this mission?" inquired Rainbow Dash. One of the least phased by the news, and the battle.

"Yea, do we know more'n usual?" Applejack asked.

"Well, we know that there is a small fortification in the mountains close to the border. This is where the commanders of the enemy's forces in Equestria have been the entire time. We are going to be with the divisions sent to take them out," Twilight informed.

"Which divisions are going?" Randis asked.

"The Ponyville Division, fifty members of the Stalliongrad Division, and fifty members of the Cloudsdale aerial Division. There will also be a squad of unicorn magicians coming from Canterlot. We will have about one-hundred and seventy soldiers, us included. We will be entering their fort by its west wall, as that is the side closest to the border." Twilight paused, then continued, "We will have the element of surprise on our side, and we will be completely prepared for whatever they have! Lastly, once this mission is over, we will have proof enough to begin a true campaign. Up until now it has been mostly covert missions. After this, as I said, Luna and Celestia will begin to bolster the military. Still though, that is days away. We can take a quick break before we have to worry about it. We all need our rest."

"Well, Ah am pretty sore from yesterday," Applejack agreed.

"Yea, a few days rest, and I will be ready to be completely awesome!" Rainbow Dash said.

The rest each made their agreements to take it easy, and with issues settled as much as they currently could be, they headed home. The next few days were that of rest, and recuperation. They spent their last day preparing for the coming battle with the troops in Ponyville. The ran the usual training, and conditioning routines. With the sun setting on that day, they each headed home. They were to meet the Divisions from Stalliongrad and Cloudsdale tomorrow morning. Then they would be on their way to an actual enemy fortress. However small, it would be the most difficult thing any of the mane six, or Randis, had done so far. They each thought of the next day while the fell into a slightly anxious sleep.

As each woke early the next morning, before the sun had even risen, they gathered their gear. Each had kept the armor and weapons they had been issued for the battle days ago. They donned their equipment, and headed for the garrison at Sweet Apple Acres. By the time each of the mane six, and Randis, had arrived, the Ponyville Division was already ready to march to the meeting point. Before they left, the sergeants met with the mane six, to speak of the coming days.

Quick Silver spoke first, "Are you each ready for whats ahead?"

Twilight answered, "Well, we are as ready as we can be."

"Yea," Rainbow Dash interjected, "This will kinda be a first for us."

Quick Silver took this in, and said, "Well, just so long as you think you are ready. You know this is going to be a long, and grueling thing. We have to go in through their western wall, this means we have a long journey East to our border, and we will meet the divisions from Cloudsdale, and Stalliongrad along the way. The Lieutenant is on his way from the barracks, and he will have some more information than the rest of us."

With that said, Lieutenant Ironside had exited the barracks, and started to close the distance between the building, and the platoon. As he neared, everyone stood to attention, and prepared to be briefed. Ironside began, "We all know the gist of what we are getting ready to do. That is, we are heading on the East Road to attack an enemy fortification, just on their side of the border. This is an act of war. More like our formal declaration of war. We are to meet the Cloudsdale Aerial Division, and the Stalliongrad Division on the way to said fort. This will triple our current number of soldiers. We will make camp on our side of the border, and before dawn tomorrow, we will break camp and assault the fortifications. We will breach the western wall with a magical 'bomb' of sorts. We will be against possibly three hundred pony soldiers like us, and whatever else they happen to have hidden in their closet this time. There will be another briefing when we make camp, so now lets get going! We have a long, and fast, march ahead of us if we plan to make it on time."

After finishing his briefing, Ironside called the order to move out. He also had the pegasi march with the rest of the troops, rather than fly. They made good speed, reaching the point where they were to join with the Cloudsdale Aerial Division within an hour. Cloudsdale was just a little ways to the east of Ponyville, though, and Stalliongrad was much farther east. With the pegasi the tow divisions continued the march East. It was nearing noon by the time they stopped for a quick lunch. They had covered almost half the distance to the meet-up place with the Stalliongrad Division. While they ate, the mane six, Randis, and the sergeants met up for some idle talk. Before they could even really begin, however, the soldiers were gathered back up by Lieutenant Ironside. Once gathered, he gave the order to move out.

They marched for another six hours, and soon could see the Stalliongrad Division waiting for them. They had long ago left the familiar sparse woodlands, and entered a more rugged landscape. They had entered a slightly rocky area with chilly winds. This suited the residents of Stalliongrad and the other towns of the area quite well. As they progressed across the landscape to the temporary camp set up by the Stalliongrad Division, they heard the call to break camp sounded. As they neared the camp was picked apart, and the Division was lined up by its superiors. Ironside ordered the combined Ponyville and Cloudsdale Divisions to halt, and continued across the remaining distance to speak with the heads of the Stalliongrad Division. He seemed quite pleased as he exchanged words with them, and soon headed back with the division in tow. They were now more than one-hundred and fifty strong, and were given the order to move out, and march the final leg of the journey to the border site.

The sun had set by the time Ironside ordered the divisions to stop and make camp. They had reached the site scouted earlier by pegasus intelligence teams, and covertly made their camp. They were withing an hours march of the enemies fort, and would be woken well before dawn the next day to make the distance with the cover of night. As camp was finished, and their slight dinner was served, the Lieutenant gave the order that there would be no conversing after they ate. He said they would need to get to sleep as soon as possible if thy were to be ready for the battle the next day. This slightly dampened the spirits of the mane six, who had been hoping to chat with one-another after the long days march. Randis was alright with going directly to sleep, as the long hours had been quite tiresome for him.

The call to rise was passed quietly from tent to tent early the next day. Everyone of the divisions were woken and passed a fast breakfast. They were given the time it took to pack the camp to wake up. They were scheduled to arrive at the enemies fort half an hour before dawn, and so they left the necessary hour earlier. As they reached and passed the border, they terrain changed from slightly rocky, to mountainous. They would have to ascend to reach the fort. Their gathered intelligence told them the fortification was in a pass. They would have to climb a short distance, then they would be in a curved pass that led directly between Equestria and her neighboring country. They would then have a twenty minute march before they reached the fortification's east wall. From there, they would use a few explosive spells, and breach the wall. The end goal was to eliminate a part of the leadership that had assaulted Equestria, and to make a point.

Randis was near the front of the formation as they moved into the pass, and was one of the first to view their target. The fort had walls about twenty feet high, and they covered the entire pass. He then watched as the order for the unicorn magi to blow the wall was given, and using their collective power, they blew a thirty foot wide hole in the wall. They had also set a shield to reflect the shrapnel back inside of the structure. They heard the first screams of the day, and were soon to hear more.

The Equestrian formation was lost as soon as the breach had been made. They had entered a charge and were passing through the opening before the dust had settled. Randis was in the second line, with the mane six in the third and fourth lines, as well as the medical squad, and the unicorn magi squad. The battle began without a problem. The Equestrians were devastating the shocked forces of their enemies, and had suffered no casualties. Then, their advantage had worn off, and they were slowed in their advance. They had pushed into a courtyard, and were soon evenly matched. The siege had begun.

Randis had managed to wind up next to Quick Silver again. The two fought well together, as they had learned each others styles rather well in their past battles. The two were in the thick of the fight, hacking and slashing their way to victory. They had each, along with the rest of those first through the breach, claimed several opponents lives, and were soon to do so again.

Applejack had kept close to Pinkie Pie, and they were supporting each other well. They each were able to help counter, or block, each move that slipped through their friends defense. They were to the far right of the battle, and had a limited view of the battle, they had long ago lost sight of the rest of their friends, and were between a few stout members of the Stalliongrad Division. They had been forced to claim a few lives, but knew it was a necessity at this point.

Rainbow Dash was in the air. She was in her element, battling other pegasi, and protecting her friends on the ground. She and the Cloudsdale division had been ordered to take to the sky as necessary to counter the enemies aerial combatants. She had been the ending factor for many of the enemy pegasi, but she was too caught up in the rush that such a flight gave her to put though to it at the moment.

Twilight Sparkle was part of a knot of unicorns on the far left of the battle, behind the melee lines. They were busily throwing spells of stunning, spells of concussion, objects, opponents, and more into the enemy's lines. She was about to execute a rather potent spell, which would cause a trench to form under a group of about twenty enemy soldiers, when she noticed a magic flare just to the right of their position. Enemy unicorns had finally begun to magically counter attack, and they had to be stopped. The number one thing the Equestrian unicorns always did was exhaust the enemy's magicians. This prevented them from using deadly spells, and from escaping. So the magicians turned on their counterparts.

Fluttershy and Rarity were currently sitting slightly idle. They had seen very few injured so far, but knew that would soon change. They were two of the ten medics for the one-hundred and fifty-plus soldiers, and they would likely be bogged down quite quickly. They each held these fears silently, though, as they wanted to keep morale as high as possible.

As each and every Equestrian performed his or her duty, the battle began to push in their favor again. The Equestrian's unicorns were successfully draining their counterparts, and the pegasi had taken control of the air. The stoic front line was holding against the enemy, and the medic squad was quickly patching up each and every one who came to them. They were slightly startled, at the sound of a great horn, and the enemy began to fall back, into the main structure. The Equestrians pushed them the entire way, and kept following them right through the doors. After reaching the bottleneck in the entrance hall, Ironside moved to give new orders to the battle magicians.

Ironside galloped from where he had been viewing the battle to where Wrecker, the unicorn in charge of the Battle Magi, stood. He spoke, "Wrecker, I want you to take Dark Storm, and two squads of soldiers, and blow a hole in the wall to the right of those doors. Get inside that building! We only have so long before the commanding officers here try to escape."

Wrecker replied, "Yes sir, but, why wouldn't they have left already? We have been here for nearly half an hour. If they thought they were going to lose, they probably have already left."

Ironside chuckled, "They would like too, but they can't easily. The other side of this fortress currently has several packs of Mountain Wolves waiting to take a bite of anypony foolish enough to leave that Eastern Gate. Also, Celestia cast a blanket spell across the entire compound. She left Canterlot early this morning, and arrived here to cast the spell before raising the sun. This spell is the real reason the unicorns in charge have not left. The spell prevents teleportation. Try as you like, none of us can teleport."

"Sir, the Princess came all the way here, just to do that?" Wrecker asked, in slight disbelief.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. She personally decided that this was important enough to cast a quite powerful spell. We only have a few more hours though. That was the downside to her doing it. We could have had a team of unicorns cast it, and hold the spell for a longer amount of time, but they would have been very vulnerable. Now get going! You and Dark Storm take that side, and I will send the Elements, Quick Silver, the human, and a couple of squads through the left side. I will push the center. The command base is deeper in the facility, close to the mountains on the north side."

"Sir, yes sir. Should I go find Dark Storm?" Wrecker asked.

"No, he is between here and Quick Silver. I will tell him myself, as well as send three squads this way," Lieutenant Ironside said as he turned and moved off to locate Dark Storm, and to inform Quick Silver and the Element bearers.

Randis was with Quick Silver when Ironside gave him the orders to head for the left side of the entrance, and so got his orders at the same time. They both arrived at the appointed spot just before Twilight and Rainbow Dash. They had to wait for a few minutes for the rest of the Element bearers to be gathered, and by then the three squads going with them had assembled. Twilight got in position with the other unicorns of the group to blast the hole in the wall. They waited until they got the command from Ironside, and triggered the spell.

The effect was similar to the original breaching. All of the soldiers in the room they opened up were stunned, and easy targets. The Equestrian squads then moved deeper into the building. They paused and felt the building shudder as Wrecker and his group blasted their opening. This was a good sign. They were supposed to meet with Wrecker and Dark Storm before confronting the enemy commanders' final bastion, but they knew they might have to go in alone. They met few enemies in their section of the building, and were able to make a lot of progress rather quickly.

They had entered the building in what appeared to be a mess hall of sorts. They then had moved into a long corridor, clearing the rooms as they went by. They found mostly staff hiding in the store rooms they opened, but found a single squad of soldiers in an armory near the end of the corridor. Outnumbered, the group surrendered (possibly because they were also not equipped yet). The group was escorted out with a few members of Quick Silver's group.

After taking care of the prisoners, Quick Silver, the Element bearers, Randis, and the three squads accompanying them, moved through a large, heavy, wooden door, and into a large meeting chamber. The room had been recently abandoned, as there were papers with that day's date on the table, and chairs had been knocked over in the previous occupants haste to escape. As the group moved on to the next corridor, the door was blown into the room.

Randis raised his shield as shrapnel flew by him. He felt splinters of wood bounce off of his leggins, and heard shouts from those around him. He looked up in time to see a large group of enemy soldiers charging into the room. Randis called out in warning to the rest of the group, and immediately started the offensive. He was soon locked in combat, with his comrades joining shortly after.

They were outnumbered roughly two-to-one, but several of the enemies could not get past their own to attack the Equestrians. The enemy had another advantage though. They had a few of their commanders' personal body guards with them. The body guards were ponies whose size put Big Macintosh to shame. They had heavy armor, and large swords. They would be quite formidable opponents, if they ever got to fight.

Twilight Sparkle saw the guard ponies as soon as they entered the room, and began to magically incapacitate each one. The spell was quite draining, as it had to overpower the particular ponies strength, and will power. She successfully downed four of the eight body guards, but there were still those other four.

Quick Silver was soon facing one of the four remaining guards, as he ended his first few opponents relatively quickly. He found this heavily armored individual to be quite a threat. The guard was not as slow as it should have been, and seemed to only become more difficult to fight with every blow scored. He would be in for quite a fight this time, and he did not know how it would end.

Applejack and Pinkie Pie were fighting a pair quite like themselves. They worked together, and defended each other rather well. They, however, were complete soldiers. The always made for a lethal blow, unless attempting to lure their opponent into overextending themselves, and making the blow easier to deal. This put Applejack and Pinkie on a major defensive, but did not deter them. They had come this far, and needed to keep moving so as to ensure they did not get pinned.

Rainbow Dash was just to the right of the door, and near the center of the battle. She found that her armor made her a bit more encumbered while fighting on the ground. She had been fine with the march, and the aerial combat, but she was now fighting against opponents in a fairly tight space. She knew that she would have to be careful, and quickly find all of her restricted movements so as to refrain from making a mistake she would not get to regret.

Fluttershy and Rarity were safely avoiding the actual fighting. They had never received much training in swordsmanship, and only had a pair of small daggers each for weapons. They were watching for anypony who took a considerable hit, since their job was to treat the injured. They had already bandaged a few of the soldiers who had been closest to the door when it exploded. After helping them, they had been pulling splinters from those not actively engaged in combat. Now, though, they had had very few ponies to treat. Both Fluttershy and Rarity looked up though, as they heard a war cry. As they looked towards the battle, they saw two of the body guards pushing through the Equestrian's line, right through the three ponies between Randis and Quick Silver.

Randis was shocked by the ferocity of their call. He looked to his side in time to see the pony who had been standing next to him cut down. He quickly struck at his opponent, dealing an injuring blow, and turned to the new threat. He could see Quick Silver still fighting with the guard he had begun with. Quick Silver looked quite pressed, and was on a full defensive. Randis feared what these elites would be able to do, if not stopped soon. He snapped back to his immediate area, and raised his shield just in time to block a heavy blow form his opponent. While he successfully blocked the attack, his entire arm had become sore, and he felt as though he had strained the muscles in his shoulder. Randis attempted to stab at a chink in the guard's armor, but was blocked by a surprisingly fast backslash. This was going to be a hard fight, and he knew he would not be unscathed.

Twilight heard, and saw, the two guards as they began to push through the line. They had grown impatient and had thrown two of their own out of the way. They came upon the startled Equestrians quickly, and struck down the pony who had been next to Randis. The two next to Quick Silver had been badly wounded, but were spared by a magical intervention from a unicorn behind them. The unicorn then began to fight the unoccupied body guard, and try to protect his injured comrades. Twilight reached out with her magic and grabbed the three ponies, two injured and one on Death's doorstep. Twilight did her best to help the two who were injured while calling for a medic. The roving Fluttershy and Rarity answered her call.

Randis caught glimpses of the battle around him as he fought desperately for his life. His opponent was fast, even faster than Quick Silver's, and was unrelenting and tireless. Randis blocked every attack, but had been overpowered a few times. The first two times he had been lucky and dodged the attacks. The third time his luck had run out. The blow made it through his defense, and slashed down the inside of his shield arm. This left a shallow gash along his arm from the middle of his upper arm, to the middle of his forearm. He was losing blood much too quickly for his liking, and feared that should he not finish this fight soon, he would meet his demise. Looking closely at his opponents armor, he noticed something he had not before. There was a large gap in the armor where the guard's front leg met his body. The gap was slightly underneath the pony's main body, and so it would be hard to hit. Randis had an idea though.

When Fluttershy first saw the gravely injured ponies, she nearly broke down. They were another bit of stress caused by this whole situation. She and Rarity had quickly begun to do what they could, Rarity using her magic to heal the wounds to the greatest extent she could manage, and Fluttershy bandaging up the poor ponies. They were then kept back behind the line, and ordered to head back for reinforcements. They limped away, heading for where Gauzen and the rest of the medic squad waited. Fluttershy then took a moment to collect herself. She took into account the situation, where she was, what she was doing, and what needed to be done. She was about to once again face their current battle, when she heard another call for help. She and Rarity then weaved their way to the newly injured.

Applejack and Pinkie were still battling the pair of soldiers they had started with. All four were tiring, and the two Equestrians were starting to push their opponents back. They had been working on defensive the entire time, and so their opponents had been giving their all to the attack. As each attempt was foiled, their enemy tired a little bit more. Applejack had scored a few hits, and Pinkie Pie was always so close, with her opponent barely making the block. They would soon be free to take on another opponent each, and they could see the enemy's line thinning.

Quick Silver dodged his opponent's attack, and aimed his blow for a slight chink in the shoulder of the guard's armor. He scored his hit, and stepped back as the heavily armored guard took a sweeping strike towards the sergeant. Quick Silver had noticed a vital flaw in the armor near the base of the neck, when his opponent lifted his had for an especially hard strike. He knew that would be his target the next chance he had, and he would need to make the hit because he would not have enough time to back out if he didn't. He stepped aside as his opponent attempted another sweeping blow, and tensed as the guard began to raise his head. Quick Silver waited until the guard had nearly completely raised his head, and the opening was at its largest, before jumping forward. He slid his blade home, and made a clean cut across the pony's neck. He stepped back as the previous juggernaut choked, and dropped his blade. The warrior had been mighty, but had not been aware of the flaws of his own equipment. Quick Silver stepped back from the line, two fresh Equestrian soldiers taking his place. He had fought one of the hardest battles of his carrier, and had finally won.

Rainbow Dash had beaten three of the enemy's soldiers, and was battling a fourth. She had quickly learned the limits of her armor, and adjusted her fighting style to fit them. She attacked, and blocked, and countered, and parried. All that she had to do was tire the other out. She had learned quickly that this was an advantage given to her by practicing continually for the Wonderbolts. She used this advantage to the fullest, and fought her opponents into exhaustion. Once they were tired beyond their belief, she could more easily deal a mortally wounding blow. And so she continued her fight.

Randis had been on a continuous defensive. He had been waiting, and finally had his chance. He took a step back as his opponent made a sweep from right to left, and dodged inside the guard's reach as the blade passed. He slid to where the exposed section of armor was an easy target, and stabbed. The blow was fatal, and the effect immediate. The guard jerked back, and reared onto his hind legs, before falling backwards, dead by the time he hit the ground. While slightly excited by his victory, Randis was also very vulnerable. His blade remained buried in the guard, and two new enemy soldiers had taken his place. They pressed Randis, who only had a shield to defend with, and soon he was pushed back near the rest of the line. His neighbors quickly noticed his peril, and two of the free soldiers pushed forward to help him. After they relieved him, Randis made his way to Fluttershy and Rarity, so as to have his arm bandaged. As he neared them, the sound of clashing weapons gradually ceased. He paused to look back, and he saw that the Equestrians had defeated all of the enemy forces that had entered the room. They had been close while he had been fighting the guard, and it was good that they had finally finished. He turned back towards where the medics were treating another soldier, and waited for them to finish.

Twilight had helped defeat a few of the last enemy soldiers, and had then gone looking for Quick Silver. She spotted his gray coat near the door they had been fighting to reach. Twilight trotted over to the sergeant, and called to him over the troops.

"Quick Silver!" Twilight said. "What do we do now? We were held up for quite some time."

"Wrecker and his group haven't made it very far yet either," Quick Silver replied, "We still plenty of time to get to the commander's chamber. In fact, we are probably close. Those heavily armored soldiers were personal guards for the commanders. They would not be too far from the ponies they should be protecting."

"Okay," Twilight said, "well which way should we go," she looked into the corridor past the doorway, "I think I hear fighting to the right."

"Yes, that would be Ironside and his group. This hall leads directly to the center hall, and deeper into the building, closer to the mountains," Quick Silver stated. "We should go left, but we will wait until Gauzen arrives. We sent two ponies to get him a few minutes before the battle ended. They were each injured, but capable of getting to him after your friends patched them up."

"I hope they are okay, we have quite a few injured," Twilight returned.

By this time Applejack and Pinkie Pie had joined the two. Soon after, Rainbow Dash was standing next to them, and Randis followed, with Fluttershy and Rarity, as soon as he was patched up. They idly chatted for a few minutes, before the saw Gauzen enter through the far door of the room. While Gauzen talked with Quick Silver about the battle, and going deeper into the fortress, Randis had another thing to do.

Randis searched for the guard he had slain, and once he found it, he moved to where the hilt of his sword stuck out of the pony's underside. He pulled the blade free, and wiped it clean. The blade had done its job well. He sheathed the weapon, and moved back to the others. They were talking about what they might find ahead.

"There is probably another group of guards between us and their commanders," Quick Silver said. "I think we may want to send some of us around them, or at least through them, while the rest of us fight them off. We are running out of time."

"That sounds goo-..." Twilight began, only to be cut off by and explosion from the wall across from the door. They each jumped to their guard, until a familiar form stepped from the smoke and rubble. Wrecker stepped across the hall to meet them.

He looked at their shocked faces, and swung his head around. He called, "See! I told you they hadn't beaten us, Dark Storm!" as Dark Storm appeared from the hole.

"Fine, I owe you ten bits. Well Quick Silver, whats been holding you up? Ironside has nearly cleared the middle, our side is clear, and you are just barely in the middle of the fortress. Have you been..." Dark Storm stopped speaking as he saw the room that Quick Silver and his squads had been battling in. He tallied up the corpses, and decided to keep quiet.

"Yes, that is what has been keeping us," Quick Silver said. "They had eight elite guards with them as well. Those are quite a force to be reckoned with. Each is very heavily armored, and incredibly strong with massive amounts of speed, stamina, and agility. Their armor has a flaw, however, in the neck line. When they raise their head to do any sort of power chop, or block anything above them, a quite large gap opens up. Then it is an easy task to do what is necessary."

"Cold, but true, my friend," Gauzen said. He recalled the days when he had been a soldier instead of a medic, and did not regret switching careers.

Wrecker spoke up, "We need to get moving. There is only about an hour left on the blanket spell. I met with Ironside briefly before moving this way, and he said that a large portion of the enemy forces still lives. They will be holding up near the commanders, and likely in good defensive positions. We are going to have to push a small force behind the enemy's lines, and into the commander's chambers. Ironside said that we should try to split the enemy, and make a path to the entrance of where ever they are guarding."

"Sounds like a good plan, if we can pull it off," Twilight said. "how far do you think it is?"

"Likely not far," Dark Storm answered. "Especially if you found such a group of guards here. Their last defenses are probably just ahead."

"Well then," Quick Silver said, "let's go! It would be terrible to keep them waiting for us."

With that, they merged the four squads, and the sergeants, the Element bearers, and Randis made their way north up the corridor. At the end of the hall, they reached a chamber which was some sort of lobby, with many other corridors leading into it, but had a dominant feature on the northern wall. There was a massive iron door. As the troops covered the distance between their entrance, and the iron door, many of them began to feel slightly uneasy. This was obviously the last set of rooms in the fortress to the north. They had covered nearly the entire estimated distance from outside, and yet there were no defenses, other than a large door. They were about to drop these feelings, when the lights blew out. As one can guess, deep in a fortress, there is no natural light (at least not in this one). So when the torches went out, the room was plunged into darkness.

Each of the unicorns enacted a light spell as quickly as possible, and were each just in time. In the few seconds since the lights going out, the room had been nearly filled with enemy soldiers. There were ponies, and there were also trolls and orcs. As the spells were enacted, the enemy fell upon the Equestrians.

Randis, who had been near the door with the Mane Six and the sergeants, was too far behind the line to help fight off the mass of enemies. He watched as the first row of Equestrian soldiers were cut down, as they had been traveling with weapons sheathed, not expecting combat without warning. He then grew a bit more hopeful as the second line began to push back, and earn a little bit of space for the Equestrians. Randis shouted to Quick Silver over the noise, "What should we do? We are right outside their commanders' hold, but you can't spare many to get through that door. How would we even do it?"

Quick Silver looked a little lost. He had not expected for such an ambush, but he put new thoughts together quickly. "Wrecker," he yelled, "Can you get this door open?"

Wrecker weaved through the tight knit of the Equestrians, and inspected the door. He shot a small bolt of magic at it, and seemed to analyze the result. He then got closer to Quick Silver, and said, "Yes, if you can get me every spare unicorn you've got. That thing has a sort of magic draining property. With enough of us, I can get it open, but you wont have any magical support. And you will need to pick a team to go in, and fight those unicorns. There should only be three of them, if the intelligence on this place was correct."

"If you think that will work, then we can get that to happen," Quick Silver replied. He then had the word passed around for every unicorn of decent magical potential to move as close to the door as they could. Once gathered, he announced, "You all are going to work together to make us a hole in this door. Then I will send a small squad through to take care of the objective of our mission. The rest of us will stay out here to keep these thugs busy!"

Each of the unicorns nodded, and Wrecker took over. "Okay, I need each of you to lend me your power, I assume you all know how?" He waited for the necessary nods, which were given quickly. "Good, now when I give the order, you will channel your energy to me, and I will cast a spell that will temporarily make a slip around the door. This will be a kind of hole from this side, to the other. We can't go through the door with magic, as it is extremely resistant, and would require much more power than we all possess. When I open the slip, you will need to give me your power, so I can control it. If we let it free, it will expand, pulling in anything unfortunate enough to be close by, and then it will collapse. Now, if you are each ready, Quick Silver, get your team ready."

"Done, Randis, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity. Each of you will be going though the slip, so get ready! I have chosen you because you all work well together as a team, and you have been in situations like this before, and can probably handle yourselves," Quick Silver said. After each of the seven had gotten into position, he said to Wrecker, "When ever you are ready!"

"Aight!" was the simple reply, as Wrecker began to cast the intricate spell. Soon, the space in front of the door began to waver, and eventually it was rent through. The portal like hole showed the inside of another room, and then it began to lose its rigid form. Wrecker shouted, "Come on you all! Give me a hoof!" Each of the unicorns around him tore their gaze from the slip, and began to transfer their power to Wrecker. Their horns glowed a wide variety of colors, and ethereal bands of each color wound their way to Wrecker. With each joining at his horn, he re solidified the edges of the slip, and shouted, "GO THROUGH ALREADY!" As a rift spell was quite complicated and difficult, made even more so by every passing second of its activation. The group of seven charged through the gap.

Upon entering the room, they were immediately under attack. However, those with battle training were ready. They blocked the blows lowering upon them, and slew the opponents immediately, out of instinct to survive. After they had all entered, they looked to the ground, and saw the bodies of four orcs. They then pressed deeper into the chamber. It was a place relatively devoid of anything. Or so the seven thought. As they neared the center of the chamber, they found themselves in trouble. The three unicorn commanders had been in the room, and had waited until they had the seven intruding Equestrians surrounded to enter the visible spectrum.

As each became visible, they split the Equestrians into three groups. Rainbow Dash, and Applejack each faced a unicorn, while Twilight and Pinkie Pie faced another, leaving Randis and Fluttershy and Rarity to face the third. As they moved towards their opponent, each unicorn drew two swords from sheaths on either side of their bodies. They raised their blades with magic, and attacked.

Twilight and Pinkie were best suited to fight their opponent, as Twilight countered one blade with her own sword, and Pinkie had the sense to keep her eye on the other blade. Twilight fought with expert style, and speed, against her opponent, and so the enemy unicorn had to focus most of her attention on Twilight. Pinkie Pie just had to keep the other sword from getting to wild against her. She had been taught by Quick Silver that when unicorns wield swords, they actually just use their magic like an extra long reaching mouth. The weapon was not the point from which the force used to move it originated. That was a little ways behind the blade, meaning it always had a solid being of sorts controlling it. If you could just tire that being, the magic would wear out. Well, Pinkie was good at tiring ponies out, and so she did what she was good at.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack had received nearly the same training as Pinkie. They weapon was not the pivot point of the power exerted on it. It was more like there was a flying pony wielding the weapon, and attacking them. These individual flying ponies were rather easy to break, if you could counter them enough. They could only stand about ten hits, before the unicorn would have to re-grip their weapons. At that point, they would be open for attack for a few seconds. This was a key thing to remember when fighting magic users.

Randis, Fluttershy, and Rarity were decently suited to fight their opponent. While Rarity and Fluttershy were medics, and had not received completely vigorous battle training as a result, Rarity was capable of wielding her weapon with magic, and Fluttershy could always through up a decent block with her dagger. Randis, was also capable of fighting this unicorn, as he had had vigorous battle training, for the most part. And so as the unicorn commanders realized that their current tactic would not work, they consolidated.

Each tried to throw up separate shields to split themselves from the Equestrians, but Twilight could easily punch through each with a magic burst. Then the unicorns each casted a joint shield. They combined their shields into one single shield, which proved to be a bit more difficult for Twilight to damage. Each individual was only about three fourths the maximum strength shield Twilight had been able to break, but the single combined shield was three times that original power. Plenty far from her ability at the moment. The three enemy commanders were safe, for now.

Knowing they were safe, the three unicorns spoke quietly amongst themselves, and then turned towards the seven Equestrians. They each smiled, knowing the evil they had in mind would surely bring them enough time to escape. They used their combined power to grab Randis, and pull him through the shield. While he struggled, and fought the pull, he had no chance at breaking it. Once on the other side of the shield the three unicorns drew a single blade each, and began to attack the outnumbered, and outmaneuvered, human. While he fought bravely, and gave them a run for their money, they proved to be too much for the poor fellow. He soon could not block all three swords, and was losing stamina quickly. At long last, the three unicorns disarmed him, and they each slid their blades home. They had mortally wounded him, and used the time this would by them to their advantage. As their shield was finally broken through by an enraged Twilight Sparkle, all ten in the room paused, as there was the effect of a veil lifting. The three unicorns used this moment to teleport free form the fortress, while Twilight used it for a different purpose. Just as Ironside and the others opened the Iron door, Twilight grabbed all six of her friends, and did the longest distance teleport she had ever done. She used all of the power that her temporary rage had given her, and so she kept control.

She had teleported all the way back to Canterlot itself. Into the Royal Palace, and right into Celestia's morning court session. Twilight was able to get one word out before passing out. That was, "Help!"

Celestia, recognizing the grave nature of such a visit, magically grabbed both of the injured to the Royal Infirmary. She placed Twilight on a bed, and then looked at Randis. She gasped, the man had been stabbed three times, and was as near death as one can get, without actually crossing over. This left her one option, and so she broke several of the most ancient rules set up about magic, and cast a taboo spell.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I AM SO SORRY! I had meant to get this chapter up much sooner, but did not have the time to write it. Immediately after finishing chapter eight, I had to stop procrastinating and begin to practice constantly for a solo ensemble contest that my school band was in. Right after the contest, I had to catch up on all of the school work that had accumulated because I had been slacking off. Then we just had the ITED tests all this week, and I had a lot of homework as well. I hope that you can all accept my most sincere apologies for taking so long, for such a poor work of Fan Fiction. I feel like I have robbed any of you who have favorite-ed, or even followed my story, of your valuable time, and do not know if I can ever repay you. I hope that getting this chapter up will help us on the road to forgiveness, and atonement, while possibly entertaining you for a little while.

Also, I am sure you have noticed errors in the grammar, spelling, usage, and punctuation in this story. I will work to fix these when I have time, but in the mean time, I will just focus on getting the next chapter done, and doing my best to work of the debt I have accumulated to you, my Readers.

General Snave Y. Wehttam


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Rainbow Dash sat beside Twilight's bed in the infirmary and Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity sat beside her. They had been there since the teleport yesterday. Twilight had been unconscious for nearly a full day, and four of the friends at her bed had fallen asleep early the next morning. Rainbow Dash had stayed awake, just to make sure she would be there for her friend. The unicorn doctors had said they didn't know how long it would take her to wake...

"The teleportation spell she used was made for short distances, and no more than maybe two ponies," the head doctor had said. "The effects of using this spell for long range, or for carrying a large amount of ponies, have been disastrous. You are all lucky to have ended up together, alive and well. Except for that poor fellow, but that was not from the spell. We will just have to watch, wait, and see."

"Thank you doctor," Rarity had said. The others looked quite crestfallen. They had been hoping to be told that she would be awake in a few minutes, no matter how much they had doubted those hopes.

Back in the present, Rainbow Dash was waiting. She knew that Twilight would wake soon, nothing could keep this girl down for long. She was worried as well. None of them knew where Randis was, and the last they had seen he was in very bad shape. They had seen as he was struck down, and from the blows... She didn't want to think about it.

She snapped her head back to Twilight's bed, as she saw the purple mare shift. Twilight had turned so her face was towards the ceiling. The unicorn opened her eyes a slight crack. She mumbled something about her head aching, and then shot straight up in the bed. She looked around the room, confusion on her face. Rainbow was about to explain, or try to calm her down, but then Twilight sighed. She turned to her friends and smiled at Rainbow Dash. "We're safe, in Canterlot ri-..." she began, but then, "Where's Randis! Is he alright? And you all, are you alright? But still he wa..." She stopped as Pinkie Pie hugged her.

"Twilight, we are fine," Applejack said. Each of the sleeping friends had woken just after Twilight. They quickly joined in the hug. Together the six shared a moment where their friendship calmed them, and helped ease their minds. Then they broke apart, each happier than they had been previously.

"We don't know anything about Randis, Twilight dear," We haven't even seen either of the princesses since Celestia took the two of you to the infirmary. Do you know where they might be?"

"Well, I can find out. Doctor!" she called, and as the white uniformed physician hurried to the bedside, she asked, "Doctor, do you know where the princesses are? And if you do, can you clear me to go an talk to them?"

The doctor looked slightly startled by the fact that she had woken so soon, but relieved. He had often seen Twilight while she had lived at the palace. He said, "I know where the princesses are Miss Sparkle, buy I was asked by Celestia to keep you here, until she came to get you."

"Where are they then?" Twilight asked.

"Well, they are in the private medical chambers. The ones on the west side of the palace," He informed her.

Twilight looked a little bit worried. The west medical chambers were only used in very bad cases. Often only if there was little chance to save the patient, as then some more extreme measures in healing magic are allowed to be used. They were not known to have a high patient success rate.

The six waited, each adding to what little conversation there was, while watching the doors for the princesses. They ate lunch together, and waited. The afternoon was abut half gone, when they noticed something. It was Rarity to first see it. She moved to the window, and called the other five.

"Girls, come look at this," She said. Once they arrived she pointed to the early evening sun. They looked and saw a sun that looked old. The celestial body of light, which brought them day, was sluggishly moving across the sky, and was dim compared to its normal brilliance. They were each stunned by this, and jumped a little when they heard a voice behind them.

"Yes, my little ponies, it is strange, isn't it," Spoke the familiar voice.

"Princess!" Twilight turned and embraced the waiting Celestia. She was happy that her longterm mentor had finally arrived. So she finally asked, "Princess, what about Randis? Is he alright?"

"Well," Celestia paused, "Come and see."

Twilight and the others followed Celestia through the palace. They walked in silence through the cavernous corridors, and had many chances to peek into the vast chambers of the Royal Palace. As they neared the western medical chambers they saw Luna standing outside one of the doors. She looked very tired, even though she would be raising the moon in a matter of hours. As they came withing a few yards of her, Luna looked up at them. She greeted them all with warm words.

"Hello Twilight, and Twilight's friends. I hope you are all well after yesterday?" the princess of the night asked.

"Yes Luna, we are all fine. What we need to know though, is how is Randis?" Twilight said. She was rather anxious, and definitely worried.

"I understand Twilight. We have done our best to help him, and so now I am off to get some rest before I raise the moon. Celestia will show you all to your friend," Luna said before she began towards the other end of the hall. "Do try to break the news to them nicely, sister," she said quietly to Celestia. With that she was gone, a simple teleport to her chambers, and she could rest until nightfall.

Pinkie Pie, having caught the last remark by Luna, was very worried. Her mane had deflated slightly, and as Celestia opened the large door to the chamber, she leaned against Applejack for support. The six followed Princess Celestia into the ward, and waited, each slightly holding their breath.

"Now, you all know that your friend, Randis, was badly injured. In fact, mortally so. There is little anypony can do for three wounds such as the ones that he bore," Celestia gave this a moment to sink in before continuing, "Luna and I both used as much healing magic as we possessed, but we could not completely heal his human body. So we did the only thing we could." With that, she opened the curtain that split the small chamber in two. Each of the mane six gasped as they viewed what lay behind the curtain.

There was a bundle of blankets, which could only be their injured friend, but that had no human shape to them. The bundle was upon a dais that rose above the floor to about half of Twilight's hight. On one side of the circular platform a strikingly red tuft of hair hung down. Each of them stepped closer, and eyed the familiar shape. Celestia herself was nearly as curious, because every time she had performed this particular spell, the end result was always different. You never know which type they will be until they wake.

As each of the seven leaned a little bit closer, the form inside the bundle stirred. The six ponies standing in the room took a step back, and the form unsteadily rose. As it rose it became clear that it was pony in form, but there were oddities. Under the blanket they could see that it appeared to have wings, but there was also the impression of a unicorns horn. As the pony rose, the blanket slid from its head, and he opened his eyes. His gaze fell rather blankly on Twilight, and there was a small flash. The impressions of wings disappeared, and the horn was solidified with a flash of light. With this done, he stumbled back into a prone position. Sides rising and falling as he drew breath, but doing so slowly. He was unconscious again, and Celestia ushered the six out of the room.

"Interesting..." she mumbled. As she guided them out of the room, she pulled the curtain back closed. Once out of the ward herself, she closed the door, and turned to speak.

"He just needs some more rest," Princess Celestia said. "By tomorrow he should be awake and well."

"Princess, was that Randis?" Twilight asked before any other could speak.

"Yes Twilight. That is indeed Randis," Celestia assured her.

"How...?" Twilight and each of her friends asked in unison.

"Well, it is as I said. Luna and I each possess massive amounts of knowledge on the subject of magical healing. However, he had broken his human form. Humans have a unique property like all other creatures of this world. Specifically theirs is the ability to take tons of damage, until a certain point, and be fine in the end. After they go beyond that point the effect is nearly irreversible. The only way around it is to not be a human," when Celestia finished, she saw they each looked slightly more confused than she wished. "Here," she pulled two books form the air beside her, "These are two annals on humans. They are quite old, and will require some translation to modern Equestrian. Though, you likely wont ever see another human in your lifetime, so make of it what you will. They will explain why humans are as they are, and why they are extinct." With that, she turned and headed down the hall a short distance. "One last thing," she said, stopping just before the corner, "You all did a great service to your country, and so you will each be rewarded. Also, leave him be. He needs to rest to recover from such a sudden transformation." And with that, she was gone.

Twilight and her friends just stood there, in that cavernous hallway, for several moments. Each took their own time to think about this new event. One by one they each headed back towards the chambers that had been assigned. First was Pinkie Pie, as she, ever looking on the bright side of things, had a "Welcome to Life as a Pony" party to plan. Fluttershy followed soon after, overall worried about this whole ordeal. Then Rarity, who knew there was no other way. Applejack and Rainbow Dash each left at nearly the same time. Applejack thinking about how good it was her friend would be fine, and Rainbow thinking it kind of sucked he wasn't a pegasus, but also hoping he would be able to cope with the change. Lastly, Twilight. She was worried for a number of reasons, most pertinent being wether he would be alright with the change, on many levels. First, if he wasn't able to mentally cope with the new form, he could easily go insane, or just become a vegetable. Second, what if he was able to cope with it, but resent them for changing him so drastically! Whatever happened, Twilight new that she would have to wait to find out.

The next morning, a palace servant woke each of the element bearers. After leaving their rooms, they were escorted to breakfast. At breakfast they were met by Princess Celestia, who, before they could ask any questions of, was called off to settle a dispute between two nobles. After breakfast, each headed off to go do different things to pass the time. Twilight decided to try reading the books on humans, but was indeed stopped by the need to translate them. She then immediately set herself on the consuming task of translating the annals. Fluttershy decided to give the creatures in the palace gardens another chance. Applejack went down to the kitchens to try to find out where the palace got its food from. Rainbow Dash decided to spend her time flying around the grounds. Pinkie Pie... well, whatever Pinkie ended up doing, it must have been time consuming. That pony could make watching paint dry an interesting experience.

About halfway through the day, each of the mane six were contacted by Princess Celestia. She asked them to hurry to the medical ward where Randis was currently located. She sent each a short note saying:

Dear Twilight,

Your friend, Ranids, has woken. We need you, and your other friends', help to calm him down. As once can expect, it is quite a shock to be a completely different species when you wake. It shouldn't be too hard, he trusts you six. He and I were never quite on the same page.

Your Mentor,

Celestia

(Of course, each letter was slightly different for each of Twilight's friends.) Needless to say, each of the six hurried to the ward. They each met in the main hall of the palace, and went together to the west wing of the complex. As they reached the door to the ward, Twilight paused. She couldn't hear sounds of a startled unicorn rampaging, in fact, it was almost the opposite. Curious, she opened the door. She was greeted by a soft green light.

As each entered the room, the got to see quite a show. Randis had accidentally conjured several orbs of green light, and was busily maneuvering them through the air. He was concentrating on a specific orb, as it slowly moved across the room. He soon noticed each of his friends in the doorway, and greeted them.

"Hi," he said slightly bewildered.

"Randis," Twilight ventured, "Are you alright?"

"Yea, you okay?" Rainbow Dash added.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just, feel oddly calm. I should probably be freaking out about not being a human right now, and be spouting more irrational nonsense. But I am not," Randis said. "Strange."

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but closed it as Luna came into view. She appeared to have stepped into existence from the shadows. As the others finally noticed her, Luna spoke, "I played my hoof in keeping him calm. As Princess of the Night, I not only have power over night, but also things associated with night. Among various other things, I can impose tranquility on creatures, and calm crowds. I just did so to Randis to keep him from hurting himself. It is quite a shock to be a totally different creature from the last you remember being."

"Well, thank you Princess Luna," Twilight said. Each of her friends did the same. Twilight then asked, "How long until this spell wears off?"

"Not much longer now. You may want to be ready to calm him. He is likely to go into slight shock," Luna told them.

"Oh, what a strange feeling!" Randis said, as the spell wore off. "Though, I don't feel worried or anything. I'm not as calm, but I am not getting upset. Hmm..." He did seem rather calm, but was getting a more confused look on his face. His ears flattened, and he said, "Come to think of it, why am I a pony? Also, where am I?"

"Well, you remember the fight, at that fortress?" Twilight asked.

"Yes," was his reply.

"Well, you got badly inured, and so I brought us all to Canterlot. You are in the Princesses' castle. I asked them to heal you," Twilight said.

"Then, why am I... different?" He asked, gesturing to his new body with a hoof.

"Well, Princess Celestia said that she couldn't completely heal your human form, and so the only way to save you was to turn you into a pony like us, is that alright?" Twilight said.

"Well, if it was this or death, then definitely!" Randis said. "Even if I will have to get used to this, I will have plenty of help doing so though," he then looked towards his six friends.

"Of course," They each said after a brief revelation. He was not angry, he was not disappointed, he was just happy to still be with them. With that, Luna spoke again.

"He will need some lessons in the basics of magic, while also learning how to handle movement. Both of these should be fairly quick lessons, and then he can begin on the more complex things," Princess Luna said. "You are going to have to take it easy though. He just went through a very stressful magical procedure."

"We know Princess Luna, and thank you and Princess Celestia for doing such a spell to save our friend. I owe you so much!" Twilight said.

"No Twilight. It was our duty to help you, and try to save your friend. My student, I would want to help you with anything I could."

Each turned towards the door, and there stood Celestia, who had found a temporary break in her royal duties to ensure that everything was going well. She spoke again, "Here, I can take you all to the ward closer to you six's rooms." With that said, she enacted a teleport spell which took each of them through a warm barrier of sorts, and deposited them in the ward. However, something wasn't quite right.

As the spell finished, in the instances it took to transpire, Randis had grown rigid, and looked suddenly frightened. His eyes darted about as though he was looking for someone, and then they stopped. They took a different complexion. They became slightly darker, less friendly, and cruel. His horn flared, not the green his magic had taken earlier, but a deep red. The same red as his mane, and tail. Then, he picked up several of the beds, and tossed them across the room. The red magic flung bits of furniture, and medical supplies, towards any and everything. As a rather large cabinet was flung towards the group themselves, the stunned Celestia sprung into action. Every moving object in the room was outlined with her golden magic, and halted. She then took up Randis himself, and brought him up to her eye level. Staring deep into his eyes, their cruel look faded, replaced by a very scared version of his normal light-hearted demeanor. He then fell asleep.

As Celestia laid him on a bed she had righted, she looked back to the group and said, "He's alright. That was most likely just a reaction to powerful magic after the transfiguration. I should have been more careful, don't worry though, he will be fine when he wakes. In the meantime, I am going to find somepony to clean this, and how about we move him to the ward across the hall?"

With that Celestia called for the doctor, who had hidden behind his desk when everything had started to happen, and asked him to wheel Randis into the opposite ward. Once done she bid Twilight and each of her friends a good day, and headed off to find some of the janitorial staff. Luna simply sighed, and said, "I must go, and prepare for tonight. I am going to be on a small patrol of the border area. You six's mission was successful, in the fact that it made a statement, even if you did not get their field commanders. We need to be on our toes however. They may wish for revenge of some kind."

"Alright Luna. I hope you stay safe," was what Twilight could manage at the moment. She was wondering about Ranids, and the incident which Celestia had decided to brush off as a reaction due to the recent transfiguration. Twilight wasn't so sure though.

"Yea, you be careful Princess. We need ya'll more now than ever." Applejack said. Each of the others reflected on this statement as Luna disappeared from view. She was right, of course. Right now was when the populace would most need its leaders. Especially those who control celestial bodies, as it makes them appear even more powerful.

Twilight was about to suggest that they should go do something, perhaps see some of Canterlot's many sites while they could, but stopped. As she looked out a nearby window, she saw just how late it really was. The east facing window showed the blue of night on the horizon, and she could only assume that the orange tinges of sunset were on the opposite horizon. Instead she simply bid her friends good night, as each did in turn to the rest. It had been a long day, and had gotten very eventful towards the end.

Each went to sleep wondering how they could help their newly changed friend get to know his new form. Twilight decided to teach him as much as she thought he could handle about magic. Applejack and Rainbow Dash each decided to help him with the more physical aspects of being a pony, such as running. Fluttershy decided to help him by finding some way to assist in daily life, that is, if he wanted. Pinkie was already planning her party for the next day, or when he could walk well. Rarity was already thinking of anything he could wear, "Definitely something with ruffles, but what would go with red hair, and a green coat?" Soon each drifted off.

The next morning, each woke at different times. Twilight woke second to Applejack, and went to the dining hall to grab a quick breakfast before going to the ward to talk to Randis about what he knew he could do with his magic. Applejack herself had already gotten breakfast, and gone to the ward to see if Randis had actually walked yet.

Applejack had walked into Randis' ward early, just after sunrise. She woke him gently, but was soon pushing him to the limits of his coordination. After he learned the basic foal steps, she was getting him to try to walk faster. Throughout the entire escapade of learning to walk, Randis kissed the floor many times. After about the thirtieth time he hit the floor, Applejack said, "By golly, if I had a bit for every time you have fallen on your flank, well, I would have a lot of bits."

"Well," Randis said, "it isn't exactly easy to learn a whole new way to walk. I don't even completely know which..._ hoof, _to place before the others. To think I used to be able to run for a few miles."

"It'll all come back, just you wait and see. It's like buckin apples. Once you have learned how, you wont ever truly forget sugarcube," Applejack said. Randis did, in essence, understand what she meant, even if the colloquialism she used was still a bit strange to him. He was saved, temporarily, from learning how to run when Twilight entered the room, followed by a messenger.

"Applejack, there you are!" said Twilight. "This messenger brought a letter from Sweet Apple Acres. He needed to find you quickly, he said it was important."

"Yes, Ms Applejack. This is a message of importance, or so said the rather large red farmer who gave it to me," the messenger agreed. "Why, when he came into the depot, and asked for the fastest we had, I looked at him and said, 'How important is this message? Does your lively hood depend on it?' and he replied, 'Eeyup." He paused for a breath. "Why, I had never heard such a convincing answer. Being the fastest of the carrier team, I delivered it personally. And..."

"Why thank you," Applejack cut in. "Here, pass me the thing."

The letter exchanged hands, or rather hooves, and Applejack read it. She looked up from it, and sighed. "They need me back at the orchard," she said. "It says that Applebloom and the others are trying to help, and they need me to, at least, fix what has already gone wrong. Dangit. I was gonna beat RD to your physical education." With that she headed to the door of the room. "I am never gonna hear the end of it from her now, she'll say she beat me at this... I'm gonna catch the first train to Ponyville, I will see ya'll there!" She called the last statement out as she headed out the door, and down the hall.

"Well, I hope she can get there before too much happens. Those girls have the purest intent, but the thickest actions," Twilight commented, the messenger having left right after Applejack. Twilight then turned towards Randis, who had been trying to get back on his hooves the whole time, and said, "I think I'm going to show you how to use some of your magic. First though, I will have to see what you know."

This roused an interested grunt from the green stallion, as he had always wanted to be able to wield the magic that had been around him since coming to this land. His scientific side had wanted to understand how it worked, and his childish side wanted to be able to wield the mysterious power, and make things happen. They quickly started discussing about what he thought he could do, had done, and would like to do. She would soon teach him how to control his magic, and do a few simple spells.

As the day wore on, each of the rest of the mane six made their way to the ward, with Pinkie just appearing in the ward, and the whole place filling with an explosion of confetti, and streamers. Randis decided not to question how she had done that. Rarity had wanted a few measurements, and to check the exact color of his mane and coat. Rainbow Dash had wanted to see what kind of work Applejack had done, and decided that she would come back the next day with a very vigorous workout, to which Randis gave a slight whimper. Fluttershy stopped by just to see how he was, and got to give a very interesting lesson.

"Um, hello?" she said as she entered the room.

"Oh, hello Fluttershy!" Randis said, slightly jittery.

"Is... is there a problem?" Fluttershy asked the fidgeting Randis.

"Well, yes," He replied. He then said to himself, "Why was Fluttershy the one to arrive in time for this question?" and said to her, "I really need to, uh, use the rest room."

"Oh! I see. Um, come over here," Fluttershy said, and she led him to the restroom along one wall of the room. "It's in there," she pointed to the door.

"I know where it is. I need, ugh. I need to know how to use it!" Randis replied. Again wondering why it would be Fluttershy.

"Oh. I get it." with that, she led him into the room.

A few minutes later the sound of flushing left the restroom. As Randis left, Fluttershy turned towards him from the window on the other side of the ward. "Thank you," Randis said. The conversation on how to use Equestrian toiletries had gone rather well. The only real problem was that he didn't know how he was supposed to fit with the devices, as a pony.

(As a writer, I could have described a possible configuration of the room, but have decided it is better left up to the imagination of the readers. Also, because I am not quite sure myself how they would work. Ponies aren't supposed to bend that way, LYRA!)

With the day mostly done, Randis decided to surprise everypony. They knew he could walk, but not how well, and so he began the journey to the dining hall, just in time for supper. When he finally arrived in the hall, each of the others had gotten out of their seats, and were on their way to meet him.

Needless to say, they celebrated a little at his accomplishment. And after a while of conversation, Princess Celestia walked into the room.

"It is well past dark, is everything going well?" Celestia asked.

"Yes Princess," Twilight said. She then began to tell the tails of the day, each of her friends chipping in at different points to at their perspective of different moments. When they had finished their epic, Celestia smiled.

"Well, if things are going that well, I think we can send you all home soon!" Celestia said. "I think you should be able to leave in a few days. Then you can get familiar with your form in familiar places. It should speed up your recovery even more."

Each of the mane six present, and Randis, were thrilled with the idea. They had not had a real chance to relax in Ponyville in a while. So when they headed for bed, they did so with light thoughts on their minds.

Over the next few days, Randis did indeed become able enough to move back to Ponyville. Over the next few weeks he became just about as able as everypony else. Over the next couple of months, he was able to fully integrate into pony life, and prove to be quite skilled at magic. However, not all of this good could last for him. The war Equestria was motivation towards, truly began in the third month of Randis' new life. The Equestrian and Laylanders' armies met on the field for the first time, and it was not good. Equestria barely brought the battle to a stalemate, and both countries launched full military operations. In Equestria, the situation was terrible. The armed forces were underponied, and their draft was initialized, after nearly a thousand years of near peace, Equestrians faced the reality that was the world around them.

End

Author stuff.

I must say, I am very glad to have had several of you follow this story! I would also like to thank you all for any of your criticism. I know that I have mistakes, and that there are a few chapters I need to rewrite. (Namely the ones where the story is in first person.) I would like to sincerely thank all of you who gave this story the benefit of the doubt, to the point where you read it all the way through. Thanks.

Now, I am going to say, I am not done. This particular selection is one piece of a larger whole.

The whole story is much longer, and will be posted. (I have to write it first though) The whole thing will be brought to you no matter how long it takes. I started this project, and am going to see it through.

There are a few reasons why I am ending this particular bit here, though. About the most prominent, is that I wont have the laptop I am writing this on. This is actually a school computer that I get lent every year until I graduate as part of my school's "One to one" initiative. We get these over the school year, and they are taken for maintenance and updates over the summer. On the whole, good thing, in this instance, bad because I have to stop writing for a bit. (Without this machine I don't really have anything to type on.) Now The second reason I stopped here is because it is a good transition point. (IMO) The story has just had a major change, and left off with a slight cliffhanger. If I did this right, you should want to possibly consider thinking about reading more. Also, with it set up as is, I can start at a convenient place once I begin writing the next installment.

As I said before, I will say again. Thanks. Also, sorry. I am sorry that I can be so slow. I am thankful that you are all wonderful people. Now, Until I see you again, goodbye!


	11. News for the future

An Apology/Informative note

To those who follow my story, and those who just happen to be innocently (or possibly not so innocently) passing by.

I will not be continuing my story until I have extended my grasp of the English language. I have a major problem with how I happen to be putting my story to text. I will give you just the main reason here.

I am saddened by my butchery of the story that I had in my mind. By using my inept knowledge of writing, I have injured the story I created, and do not wish to kill it completely.

I am taking more writing courses in high school this year, and as such will be more capable by the end of them. Once I have proven myself to be capable with writing, I will continue the story. Until then, I will work on proof reeding, and editing, what I have completed.

So, thank you. Thank you for being supportive with your views, follows, and likes. I will return once I am able to truly serve you all properly.


End file.
